Computed tomography of cranio-facial fibrous dysplasia

Abstract

Fibrous dysplasia is a benign fibro-osseous condition that may affect single (monostotic) or multiple (poliostotic) bones of the skeleton. In monostotic form, the maxilla is involved more often than the mandible. When monostotic fibrous dysplasia occurs adjacent to cranio-facial bones, the result is a very rare bone disease called cranio-facial fibrous dysplasia. This report describes a case of cranio-facial fibrous dysplasia in a 17-year-old Caucasian woman. The patient attended with unilateral painless mandibular swelling of 2 years duration. A panoramic radiography showed an ill-defined ground-glass appearance in the left mandibular corpus. A cranial computed tomography scan showed the presence of an expansive mass with bone density in the region of the sphenoid, temporal, occipital, frontal, mandibular bones and clivus. A survey of the skeleton revealed there were no other bones affected. The case was diagnosed as a cranio-facial fibrous dysplasia. Histopathologic examination confirmed the initial diagnosis. Cranio-facial fibrous dysplasia usually has neurological symptoms, but this patient showed none. It was decided that she would undergo periodic follow-up.