DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2020.v07i10.002

Pages: 147-155

The aim of our review is to give a complete picture of a rare condition such as the osteosarcoma of the jaw. Through the analysis of various case reports and retrospective cohort studies, the research in the literature about this topic allowed us to highlight its epidemiological, physiological, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects. In particular we tried to give greater emphasis to the X-ray aspects and diagnostic evidence of the pathology. At the epidemiological level, the osteosarcoma is a type of cancer that affects particularly young people, and for this reason most cases examined are distributed to individuals between 10 and 30 years, but we have not included exclusion criteria for this aspect. The research focused on the collection and analysis of case reports and retrospective studies from the newest to the oldest ones, as there are no substantial differences in the approach. Osteosarcomas (OS) of all sites represent 40% to 60% of primary malignant bone cancers. About 10% of osteosarcomas occur in the head and neck; most of them are in the mandible or in the maxilla. The JOS (Osteosarcoma of the jaws) represents 6-7% of all primary osteosarcomas. The mandible is more commonly involved than the maxilla (from 1.5:1 to 2:13). In many cases there is an association with smoking, alcohol and pathologies such as Paget's disease, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Sjogren's syndrome, bone diseases, treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Symptoms and signs most frequently reported by patients are swelling, loss of dental stability, pain, ulceration of mucosa, hypoesthesia and parestesia. At the X-ray level, diagnostic techniques such as orthopantomography are preferred, identifying radio-light or radio-opaque lesions, and periapic endoral x- rays, in which the presence of the enlarged periodontal ligament, the so-called Garrington sign and the "sunbeam" appearance, are highlighted. The use of CT and Magnetic resonance imaging has allowed better detection of the lesion in ....