ABSTRACT
Objective: Cystic ameloblastoma represent 10-15% of all intra osseous ameloblastomas and appear to be less aggressive than the solid ameloblastomas. The aim of this study was to examine the clinico-pathologic characteristics of cystic ameloblastomas seen at a tertiary health care centre.
Materials: All cases diagnosed as cystic ameloblastoma in the Oral Pathology Department of University College Hospital, Ibadan over a 10 year period were investigated for age, gender, location of lesion, treatment, and follow-up. The cases were classified as luminal, intra- luminal or mural, based on Ackermann classification. The data was entered into the statistical package for the social sciences version 18 (SPSS 18) and results expressed as percentages.
Results: Fifteen cystic ameloblastomas, representing 14.3% of a total of 105 ameloblastoma cases were seen. The mean age was 28.9(±14.5) years with 73.4% occurring in the second and third decades. The male:female ratio was 2:3. Fourteen (93.3%) of the lesions were in the mandible while only one (6.7%) was in the maxilla. The mural variant was the most common histological variant with 6(40%) cases while the luminal and intra-luminal had 4(26.7%) and 5(33.3%) respectively. The multilocular radiologic appearance was more common than the unilocular in this study (ratio 8:4). Cystic ameloblastoma with multilocular appearance occurred in a higher age group (mean age 31yrs) when compared with the unilocular type which had a mean age of 16.3years.
Conclusion: This study shows similar findings with previous studies but shows a higher multilocular radiological appearance as compared to unilocular variant and no case of recurrence.
Keywords: Cystic ameloblastoma, Clinico-pathologic review, Uni-locular, Multi-locular