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The congenital absence off the major salivary glands is a very infrequent disorder, in which several glands are usually involved at the same time. Sometimes this disorder can be associated with other developmental anomalies. The unilateral aplasia of the submandibular gland is an extremely rare finding with only 14 cases reported in the literature. Clinically, this kind of patients may complain of dryness of the mouth, difficulties in chewing and swallowing, severe periodontal disease or multiple caries, but usually they follow an asymptomatic course. Salivary gland aplasia can be diagnosed with a large variety off imaging techniques, which include computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRR), ultrasonography (UUS), sialography, or scintigraphy. In this paper we report a case off a patient referred to our department with a long term and progressive growing neck mass, who has an unilateral submandibular gland aplasia associated to an ipsilateral hypertrophy off the sublingual gland. © Medicina Oral S. L.

To determine the expression of the c-erb-B2, p53, bcl-2, Ki67 and CD44varV6 proteins, and to establish their prognostic value in epidermoid carcinoma of the lip.Immunohistochemical study of the c-erb-B2, p53, bcl-2, Ki67 and CD44varV6 proteins in 79 epidermoid carcinomas of the lip, diagnosed and treated over a period of 20 years. The data obtained were subjected to uni- and multi-variate statistical analyses.Immunostaining was positive in 75% of cases for c-erb-B2 protein, in 70.6% for p53 protein, in 3.8% for bcl-2 protein and in 89.9% for adhesion molecule CD44varV6. Ki67 protein expression varied between a minimum of 0% and a maximum of 6.29%. Most immunohistochemical factors analyzed presented no prognostic value for epidermoid carcinoma of the lip. Only those patients affected by this type of tumor that expressed the adhesion molecule CD44varV6 were significantly associated with a greater survival calculated by means of Kaplan-Meier analysis.The immunohistochemical techniques analyzed for the anatomicopathological study of epidermoid carcinoma of the lip should not routinely be used due to their high cost and low utility in daily clinical practice.

The present study was made in order to find possible prognostic factors in oral squamous cell carcinoma, given that it is a frequent disease (3-4% of all malignant tumors) and is the cause of a high morbidity and mortality which justifies any attempt to contribute something towards the understanding of this pathology.81 oral squamous cell carcinomas, treated with the same procedure, and retrieved from the archive of the Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla (Santander) were studied. Flow cytometry was carried out on 67 of the samples.No statistically significant differences were found between the cellular proliferative index and the mitotic index, ploidy and the S-phase factor. Likewise, none of the cytometric variables studied presented any association with the appearance of local relapse, distant metastases or survival.These variables cannot be used as a prognostic factors in squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity.

The double headed mandible condyle is a rare alteration that is frequently diagnosticated as an incidental finding in a panoramic radiograph. The different theories about its etiology are explained in this article. Symptoms described with bifid condyles vary from case to case, but in most instances are absent. Computer tomography is the ideal imaging method to evaluate the condyle morphology and to role out any degenerative process to achieve the differential diagnosis. Treatment is conservative for symptomatic patients with TMJ disorders, surgical treatment is described in literature in TMJ ankylosis that develops in bifid condyles secondary to trauma.