Dear Editor,
It is indeed interesting to read the article “Stafne’s Bone Cavity: A Diagnostic Challenge” published in Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research in 2015 [1]. The authors have extensively covered the pathology and have added five new cases to the literature all showing different extensions but all composed of adipose tissue. I want to bring to the knowledge of the authors as well as the readers that a classification of Stafne’s Bone Cavity (SBC) according to the outline and composition has been proposed by Ariji et al., [2]. They have classified SBC according to the depth as:
(i) Type I: Cavity depth is limited to the medullary portion of the mandible.
(ii) Type II: Cavity depth reaches the buccal cortex of the mandible but does not cause its expansion.
(iii) Type III: Cavity depth reaches the buccal cortex of the mandible and causes its expansion.
According to content, they are classified as:
(i) Type F: Cavity is filled with fat.
(ii) Type S: Cavity is filled with soft tissue (lymphonode, vessel, conjunctive tissue, etc.).
(iii) Type G: Cavity is filled with part of the submandibular gland.
The five cases reported by the authors can thus be classified accordingly as:
| Case 1 | Type III, Type F |
| Case 2 | Depth cannot be ascertained as no image of axial or coronal section is provided where its relationship with buccal cortex can be examined. Type F |
| Case 3 | Type I, Type F |
| Case 4 | Type II, Type F |
| Case 5 | Type I, Type F |
Classifying cases will aid in better characterization of the pathology as well as will assist in monitoring the follow-up of these lesions.
Financial or Other Competing Interests
None.
References
- [1].More CB, Das S, Gupta S, Patel P, Saha N. Stafne’s bone cavity: A diagnostic challenge. J Clin Diag Res. 2015;9(11):16–19. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/14273.6772. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- [2].Ariji E, Fujiwara N, Tabata O, Nakayama E, Kanda S, Shiratsuchi Y, Oka M. Stafne’s bone cavity: Classification based on outline and content determined by computed tomography. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol. 1993;76(3):375–80. doi: 10.1016/0030-4220(93)90271-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]