Purpose: To guide clinical decision-making more efficiently via collecting and analyzing the imaging data of patients with Stafne bone cavity(SBC).
Methods: Six patients with SBC were retrospectively reviewed in Stomatological Hospital of Shandong University. By assessing cone-beam CT (CBCT) data, age, sex, complaint, cavity location, diameter at three dimension, maximal cross-sectional area of multi-planar reconstruction planes, content gray scale, morphological classification and its relationship with mandibular canal were recorded respectively.
Results: A total of 6 cases were inadvertently found on CBCT, with no symptoms. The locations of SBC were between mandibular molar region and mandibular angle, inferior border of mandible and mandibular canal, mostly at lingual side. Three were on the left and three were on the right. The bone cavity was elliptic and its long axis was consistent with the long axis of the mandible, with an average long axis diameter of (16.43±4.54) mm, horizontal axis diameter of (6.91±1.48) mm, vertical axis diameter of (10.24±2.10) mm. According to the multi-planar reconstruction planes readings, the maximal cross-sectional area of the bone cavity was (91.93±25.52) mm2, the maximal coronal area was (57.26±23.23) mm2, and the maximal sagittal area was (127.80±51.22) mm2. In view of the classification in the relationship between SBC marginal line and buccal cortical bone, there were 2 cases of type I cavity, 3 cases of type II cavity and 1 case of type III cavity. The connection between the bone cavity and the surrounding anatomical structure was classified into 3 conditions: covering penetration, adjacency and separation on the basis of the relative position between the cavity boundary with the mandibular inferior margin and the mandibular canal in sagittal plane. In addition, the content type could be primarily identified depending on estimation of corrected grey scale in the center of bone cavity.
Conclusions: CBCT can make an intuitive and clear diagnosis of Stafne bone cavity, which brings great significance into the early clinical decision-making, thus not only avoiding unnecessary surgery, reducing the waste of additional medical resources, but also decreasing the physical and mental trauma of patients.