Le chérubisme : à propos d’une nouvelle observation avec revue de la littérature

Cherubism: clinicoradiographic features and treatment

Objectives

Cherubism is a congenital childhood disease of autosomal dominant inheritance. This disease is characterized by painless bilateral enlargement of the jaws, in which bone is replaced with fibrous tissue. The condition has sui generis clinical, radiographic and histological features, of which the clinician should be aware for a better differential diagnosis in the presence of a fibro-osseous lesion affecting the bones of the maxillomandibular complex. The purpose of present paper was to review the literature and to report the most important aspects of cherubism in order to facilitate the study of this disease

Material and Methods

Literature was reviewed about cherubism, emphasizing the relevant clinicoradiographic features and treatment. Literature was selected through a search of PubMed and Scielo electronic databases. The keywords used for search were adolescent, cherubism, cherubism/physiopathology, cherubism/treatment, cherubism/radiography. A manual search of the reference lists of the identified articles and the authors' article files and recent reviews was conducted to identify additional publications. Those studies that described new features about cherubism were included in this review.

Results

In total 44 literature sources were obtained and reviewed. Studies that described new features about cherubism physiopathology, diagnostics and treatment were reviewed.

Conclusions

Despite the exceptions, cherubism is a clinically well-characterized disease. In cases of a suspicion of cherubism, radiographic examination is essential since the clinical presentation, the location and distribution of the lesions may define the diagnosis. Histopathological examination is complementary. Nowadays, genetic tests should be used for final diagnosis of cherubism.

Oral to nasal tube exchange under fibroscopic view: a new technique for nasal intubation in a predicted difficult airway

For a predicted difficult airway, oral intubation techniques are well established in pediatric anesthesia, but nasotracheal intubation remains a problem. There are many reports concerning this, but the risk of bleeding, added to the lack of cooperation make this procedure difficult and hazardous. We describe a modification of the nasal intubation technique in two stages. First an oral intubation and then exchanging the oral for a nasal tube, in the case of a 13-year-old boy affected by an advanced stage of cherubism. Oral intubation using a laryngeal mask technique has already been reported, but problems appear during the exchange procedure and even more when direct laryngoscopy is impossible. Fiberscopic control of the exchange, and the introduction of a Cook Exchange Catheter into the trachea through the oral tube before withdrawal, permits oxygenation of the patient and acts as a guide for oral tube reintroduction if required.