Abstract
Osseous lesion of the tongue is relatively uncommon. A 5-year-old girl was referred to the Dentistry of Chiba Children's Hospital, because of a nodule of the tongue. The lesion was approximately 7 mm in diameter and located superficially at the left side of the tongue and just anterior to the circumvallate papillae. Based on CT examination, a dense round mass was seen at the posterior region of the tongue. The mass had a density of 437 Hounsfield units on the CT images, indicating an osseous lesion and it was excised under general anesthesia. The nodule showed 7×7×4 mm in size. Microscopic examination of the specimen revealed that the nodule was composed of lamellated bones and lay directly beneath the stratified squamous epithelium. The histopathological diagnosis was osseous choristoma.
Although osseous lesions of the tongue had been mostly reported as osteoma before 1970, it is often now, referred as osseous choristoma. We compared 19 cases of osteoma and 44 of osseous choristoma of the tongue in the literature. Both groups were found to be the same entity in every respect as to location, pathologic features, size of tumors, ages of patients and male-female ratio. It was therefore considered that osteoma and osseous choristoma of the tongue were the same lesion.
1) The ages of the patients range from 5 to 73 years, and the mean age of patients is 27 years and 9months. The male-female ratio is 1: 3.
2) The size of tumor ranges from 4 mm up to 45 mm in the largest dimension. The average size is 10mm in the largest dimension.
3) Most tumors are firm and pedunculated, existing in the dorsal surface near the circumvallate papillae of the tongue.
4) According to histologic examination, osseous choristoma is composed of a mass of wellcircumscribed, lamellated dense bone with definite Haversian canals.
5) No essential differences between choristomas in children and adult were noted except for the size of the tumor.
