Conservative Versus Radical Treatment of Ameloblastoma: A 14-Year Study in Kedah, Malaysia.

Introduction: Ameloblastoma is a slow-growing benign odontogenic tumor of the jaws. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the epidemiological data of ameloblastoma in Kedah, to identify the clinicopathological characteristics that predict the outcome of the treatment and recurrence rate.

Methodology: A retrospective cohort study was conducted for patients who underwent treatment for ameloblastoma from 2007 to 2021. All patients with histopathologically proven ameloblastoma and underwent at least 2 years of follow-up were included in the study.

Results: Fifty-one patients met the study's inclusion criteria. The mean age was 39.8 +/- 18.8 years old, and the mean follow-up period was 80 +/- 51 months. A recurrence was observed in 10 patients out of 51 patients (19.6%). There was significant association between histologic pattern and tumor recurrence ( P <0.05). Most of the recurrence cases showed mixed histologic subtypes with the predominant variant lead by acanthomatous-follicular subtypes.

Discussion: The recurrence rate in our study, 19.6% was in line with other studies. (17.2%-24.0%) Conventional ameloblastoma with mixed acanthomatous and follicular subtypes were the most common histologic variant in recurrence cases of our study. In our study, the recurrence rate for enucleation with peripheral ostectomy was 26.7% in conventional ameloblastoma, which was lower than the reported rates, 33.3%.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that the conservative treatment can preserve the appearance and function well, at the same time keeping the risk of recurrence lower than currently published figures.