Misdiagnosis of ameloblastoma: A case report and literature review.

Ameloblastomas are slow-growing benign tumors that mostly occur in the mandible, and the most conventional histopathological subtype is follicular. This report describes the case of a 60-year-old man with an ameloblastoma in the right maxilla. In March 2012, the patient was diagnosed with basal cell adenocarcinoma at a local hospital. In April 2012, imaging and clinical assessment performed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University confirmed the diagnosis of basal cell adenocarcinoma. A sinus coronal enhanced scan showed a well-defined lesion in the right maxilla. A total right maxillary osteotomy was performed under general anesthesia to remove the tumor. The postoperative histopathology report showed that the mass was an ameloblastoma. A literature review was conducted to review age and sex predisposition, histopathological subtypes, and initial clinical symptoms of maxillary ameloblastoma and to compare previous findings with those of the present case. In addition, we explored the potential causes of misdiagnosis.