Introduction:

Ameloblastoma is the most common benign odontogenic tumor. There are no studies indicating whether the histological subtype of ameloblastomas influences the prognosis and imaging characteristics of these tumors. The purpose of this review was to assess the relationship between the imaging characteristics of unicystic ameloblastoma (UA) and conventional ameloblastoma (CA) types, based on computed tomography (CT) images, the histological subtype and their aggressiveness.

Materials and methods:

A systematic search was conducted for clinical cases of ameloblastoma published since 2000 on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. Cases should present sufficient clinical, imaging and histological information to confirm their diagnosis, histological pattern and compare their characteristics. They were classified by aggressivity degree.

Revision:

51 articles were included, with 51 cases, with 9 UA and 42 CA. For both CA and UA, plexiform and follicular histological subtypes are more common. UAs occur mainly in young patients, while CA can occur at any age. UA and CA are mostly present in the posterior sector of the jaws. The UA is mostly unilocular. AC is presented either uni or multilocular. Both AC and AU are moderate or highly aggressive behavior, there is no histological subtype that shows greater aggressiveness than another, nor that shows differences in their imaging characteristics.

Conclusion:

The imaging characteristics of CA and UA exhibit moderate to highly aggressive behavior, there is no histological subtype that is more aggressive, nor that shows imaging characteristics that allow it to differ from others.

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