OBJECTIVE: To make a retrospective study of 18 cases of patients with adamantinoma of the long bone, all of them located in the tibia; to point to the relevance of biopsy and the correlation with imaging methods in order to have a differential diagnosis with osteofibrous dysplasia and fibrous dysplasia; to comment on the nature of long bone adamantinoma, whose name is due to the histological analogy with the adamantinoma (ameloblastoma) of the jaw. METHODS: A review was made of the clinical condition, images, and anatomopathological exams supplemented with immunohistochemical essays, and the evolution of the patients. All of them were submitted to surgical treatment, 17 with "tibialization" of the fibula and the others with amputation. RESULTS: The post-surgical evolution showed to be unpredictable and not related to clinical or histopathological aspects. Two patients had an evolution with lung metastasis and died. Six did not present recurrent disease or metastases, and are clinically cured. The others, after being released from hospital, did not return for consultation. CONCLUSIONS: This is a rare neoplasia made of epithelial and mesenchymal structures that must be accurately diagnosed before any procedure is attempted. Treatment is surgical, with tumor resection with a good oncologic margin. The biological behavior is varied and unpredictable.
Adamantinoma; Tibia; Fibrous dysplasia of bone; Diagnosis, differential; Diagnostic imaging
