The Radiological Diagnosis of Lingual Osseous Tumor-like Lesion

A lingual osseous tumor-like lesion is a rare curiosity of unknown etiology. No malignant transformation has been reported. A 40-year-old healthy woman suffered chronic rhinosinusitis. An otorhinolaryngological physical examination revealed that the bilateral inferior turbinates were hypertrophic, while others were normal. However, sinus computed tomography incident ally showed the presence of an osseous lesion about 1.0 x 0.9 x 0.6 cm at the tongue base. At this point, it became problematic as to whether surgical excision should be recommended for the pathological diagnosis of an asymptomatic lingual lesion. The computed tomography demonstrated that the mass had a homogeneous bony density over the tongue base and therefore a lingual osseous tumor-like lesion was diagnosed that could be differentiated with other osseous neoplasms. As the radiological demonstration was enough to diagnose a lingual osseous tumor-like lesion, then surgical excision and pathological diagnosis was found to be unnecessary for such a benign and slow-growing lesion.