Immediate reconstruction of mandibular defects with revascularized iliac bone grafts after radical surgery for osteosarcoma.

Excluding multiple myeloma, osteosarcoma is the most frequent primary malignant bone tumor. However, it is rare in the jaw bones, where it mainly occurs in young adult men. This report describes two mandibular osteosarcomas found in two males aged 32 and 30. In the former patient, osteosarcoma developed after bilateral mandibular sclerotic changes had been diagnosed radiologically as cementifying fibroma. This patient had received radiation therapy (56 Gy) because of a high grade astrocytoma of the brain three and a half years earlier. In the latter patient the tumor arose de novo in the mandibular molar area. The initial main symptom both patients was pain, which had been considered to be of dental origin because radiographs showed no evidence of malignancy. Radical surgery using immediate mandibular reconstruction with revascularized iliac bone grafts gave good results in both cases. The former patient died eight months after surgery because of recurrent astrocytoma and the latter is now free of disease five years after surgery. Immediate reconstruction of mandibular defects is possible with osteocutaneous groin flaps.