Benign or malignant? Case report

Abstract

Introduction: Necrotizing sialometoplasia (NS) is a disease in which the clinical and sometimes even histological features can be confused with those of a malignant tumor, but which is in fact a self-limited inflammatory lesion of the salivary glands.

Case report: The authors present a case study of a 43-year-old female patient who came to the ENT Emergency Department with a painful ulcerated lesion of the hard palate. The lesion was 8 days old and had appeared after an abdominoplasty. Given the clinical need to rule out a malignant neoplasm, a biopsy was performed: the histological result was NS.

Discussion/conclusion: The authors make a literature review and stress the importance of differentiating between NS and salivary gland neoplasia. Histology is essential in case of ulcerated neoformation of the oral cavity, to adapt treatment, avoiding unsuitable approaches.