Palatal schwannoma in a young female patient: report of a case and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: A few cases of oral schwannomas in paediatric patients have appeared in the literature so far; however, there are no studies focusing solely on paediatric oral schwannomas. The aim of this study is to report a case of palatal schwannoma in a young female patient and review the pertinent literature on oral schwannomas in paediatric patients. CASE REPORT: A 12-year-old girl presented with a growing swelling of 2 weeks duration on the hard palate. With a provisional diagnosis of a salivary gland neoplasm an incisional biopsy was performed under local anesthesia and the histologic examination disclosed an Antony A type schwannoma. TREATMENT: Complete surgical resection of the lesion was performed under local anaesthesia through a palatal mucosa incision and paraffin gauze was sutured on the surgical area for protection during secondary healing. The bone underlying the tumor was normal. The postoperative period was uneventful and 2 weeks after excision the gauze were removed. FOLLOW-UP: There have been no signs of recurrence during a 18-month follow up period. CONCLUSION: A palatal swelling in a child or adolescent may represent a neoplasm, such as a schwannoma and requires careful clinical and radiographic evaluation of the dentition.