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Updated: May 16, 2026
Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology
Published on: August 22, 2022
The aneurysmal bone cyst: report of a recent case encountered in dental practice
1Section of Maxillo-Facial and Oral Radiology, Department of Oral Medicine and Periodontology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. P.O. Box 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa. brian.buch@wits.ac.za
Background:
A sixteen year-old African male with a large, hard swelling at the left gonial angle, presented at a private dental clinic in January 2009. The swelling felt warm, pulsating and was intermittently symptomatic. The unilocular, expansile lesion seen on a panoramic radiograph was provisionally diagnosed as an aneurysmal bone cyst on the basis of age, symptoms and clinical features. However, ameloblastoma was included in the differential diagnosis.
Methods:
The histological examination of an incisional biopsy specimen revealed multiple blood-filled spaces separated by septa of fibrous tissue containing fibroblasts and multinucleated giant cells, thereby confirming the diagnosis of aneurysmal bone cyst.
Results:
Unexpectedly, the patient failed to attend an appointment for curettage of the aneurysmal bone cyst by a maxillofacial surgeon.
Conclusions:
Over the past sixty-eight years, it had been postulated that the origin of the aneurysmal bone cyst was a secondary change in a large variety of pre-existing conditions. Other authors, however, have presented convincing evidence of the aneurysmal bone cyst as a primary lesion. More recently a cytogenetic aetiology for primary aneurysmal bone cysts has been postulated. Many factors in the aetiology of this rare and perplexing condition, however, still remain unclear.
