[Mandibular lesions in multiple myeloma].

A review was made of 237 cases of multiple myeloma seen at the Institute of Radiology and Hematology of the Ferrara University from 1984 through 1990. The results showed skeletal involvement of the mandible to be present in 25 patients (10.54%). The diagnosis of multiple myeloma was based on the following criteria: 1) increased number of abnormal, atypical or immature plasma cells in the bone marrow; 2) the presence of a monoclonal protein in the serum or urine; 3) bone lesions consistent with those of myeloma. Symptoms include pain and swelling of the oral cavity, tooth mobility and loss, numbness along the inferior dental nerve, and paresthesia of the lower lip. The typical radiographic appearance is a well-defined "punched-out" lytic defect, solitary or multiple; sometimes, the defect enlarges and appears "bubbly" or septated. Permeative lytic areas, with blurred outlines, are a rare pattern, which is radiologically indistinguishable from skeletal metastases. The involvement of the oral cavity and jaw in multiple myeloma has been often reported in literature: nevertheless, if radiographs of the jaws had been systematically taken in all the cases, its incidence would probably have been much higher than previously suspected.