Background:
Congenital aplasia of major salivary glands is a very rare entity, especially if it concerns an ipsilateral aplasia in a nonsyndromic patient.
Key points from the case:
The aim of this report is to present a case of an aplasia of the left submandibular gland, which was incidentally diagnosed during presurgical imaging for an ipsilateral sublingual ranula. Histopathological evidence of the lack of sublingual gland tissue in the excised specimen of the ranula is discussed.
Main lessons to be learned from this case report:
Unilateral submandibular aplasia has unknown etiology. Clinicians should be aware of this condition mainly to be able to differentially diagnose a hypertrophy/dysplasia of the contralateral or other major salivary glands, or when xerostomia is the main patient's symptom.
markers Calretinin and WT-1 are not so intensely expressed in cases of sarcomatous subtype, compared to the epithelial subtype, and may as well be positive in sarcoma or sarcomatoid carcinoma. The combination of immunohistochemistry, morphology and clinical-imaging findings should be estimated for the final diagnosis.
page S294) should be presented as 'D. Sgouridi' instead of 'S. Despina' in the authorship group The name has been corrected in the authorship group shown above.
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