Search

Maxillary ameloblastoma is a benign odontogenic neoplasm. Excision should involve wide margins because of its high recurrence rate and, ideally, be followed by reconstruction. A 23 year-old female patient presented with recurrent ameloblastoma. Two years previously, she had undergone a curettage excision. The recurrent lesion was managed by a total maxillectomy including inferior orbital rim. Simultaneous reconstruction was performed with an iliac crest bone graft for the orbital floor, and a vastus lateralis muscle flap for obliteration of the maxillary sinus and repair the oral and nasal cavities. The transferred vastus lateralis muscle already had spontaneous mucosalization over its surface two weeks after surgery. Postoperative follow up after fourteen months revealed no recurrence and no diplopia. The patient was satisfied with her appearance. The use of a single vastus lateralis muscle flap to repair both oral and nasal cavities is advantageous. It helps avoid hyper-nasal speech and maintain the stability of removable partial dentures. The conventional iliac bone graft supported by a well vascularized muscle eventually survived and provided a good functional and cosmetic result.

Advancements in endoscopic surgery, due in part to patient demands and in part to provision of superior medical care by surgeons, have significantly contributed to improvements in patients' quality of life. An endoscopic operation is minimally invasive, associated with faster recovery, and produces less postoperative morbidity. It is a well-accepted procedure in the field of plastic surgery. By applying the principle of endoscopic surgery used in facelift operations, we performed tumor excision in the forehead region.Two 1.5-cm slit incisions were made in the anterior hairline. One incision was to allow access for the 4.0-mm, 30 degrees endoscope, and the other was for surgical instrumentation. These incisions, determined by the plane of dissection, were more superficial and below the subgaleal layer for soft tissue tumors and deeper into the subperiosteal layer for bone tumors. With good illumination and magnified monitor viewing, the tumors could clearly be visualized and were completely excised.Seven patients with either dermoid cysts (3), osteomas (2), or lipomas (2) underwent endoscopically assisted procedures. In all cases, tumors were successfully excised with no acute or chronic complications. The average postoperative follow-up period was 7 months. No incidence of tumor recurrence was reported. All patients were satisfied with the resultant forehead contour and surgical scars.The main advantage of this procedure is the fact that it is minimally invasive, thus reducing the incidence of injury to the neurovascular structures of the forehead as well as minimization of scar visibility. In conclusion, an endoscope-assisted approach is a good alternative method for managing benign soft-tissue and bone tumors in the forehead and brow region.

Spontaneous bone regeneration is an unexpected phenomenon that may take place in large mandibular defects secondary to trauma and tumor resection. One explanation for this unusual healing course is that it may be derived from the mechanism of fracture healing. A review of the literature presents several factors that may influence this process, such as the presence of periosteum and bony fragments, mandibular stabilization, soft tissue protection, the presence of infection, and a young age. Previous reports of spontaneous mandibular regeneration have all taken place in relatively young patients (5-35 years old). This paper reports a case of spontaneous bone regeneration in a 58-year-old woman who sustained an injury to her mandible from an explosive blast, and presents some explanations on how such an event could take place.