1. A case is reported of a benign osteoblastoma of the body of the second thoracic vertebra causing paraplegia in a woman aged twenty-six.

2. The tumour was resected, apparently entirely, through a costo-transversectomy approach, and the paraplegia resolved almost completely.

3. Five and a half years later symptoms recurred, due to a recurrence in the form of a large, partly calcified tumour in the left upper thorax which was resected in toto via a transpleural approach.

4. The considerable histological differences between the original tumour and the recurrence are discussed.