Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor. Case report and literature review

Adenomatoid odontogenic tumors are considered, rather than a neoplasia, a benign, hamartomatous epithelial lesion of odontogenic origin . Steensland fi rst described it in 1905; he considered it as a variation of ameloblastoma.1 Stafne, in 1948 described it as an «ameloblastic adenomatoid tumor or adenoameloblastoma»,2 since it presented structures which simulated canals or glands, he therefore described it as an ameloblastoma variant. In 1915 Harbitz referred to it as cystic adantamatoma. In 1969 Philipsen and Birn proposed the current name: adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT). This name was accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1971. Nevertheless, in 2005 WHO defi ned the histological type of the adenomatoid odontogenic tumor and defined it as a tumor composed of odontogenic epithelium with a variety of histological patterns within a stroma of mature connective tissue.3