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Edito C. Cabal, MD; Young C. Sunwoo, MD; John B. Shields, MD

JAMA. 1978;240(8):785-786.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

History

A 30-year-old man had a history of intermittent pain for the past four years in the area of previous molar teeth extractions. An oroantral fistula subsequently developed, and he began losing teeth from his mandible. He had periods of remissions and exacerbations concurrent with various treatment procedures during the next three years. There was no history of metabolic disease or exposure to radiation. Roentgenograms of the mandible are shown in Fig 1. Skeletal survey did not disclose any other bone abnormality.

Diagnosis

Osteolysis of the mandible and maxilla secondary to chronic actinomycosis infection.

Comment

Figure 1 shows extensive osteolysis and thinning of the mandible, with pathological fracture of the body of the right side. Maxillary osteolysis is also present, but of lesser degree.

Actinomycetes are normal flora of the mouth, but at times may be the cause of infection. There are three species implicated in human infection: Actinomyces . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Departments of Radiology (Drs Cabal and Shields) and Pathology (Dr Sunwoo), Veterans Administration Hospital, and St Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Radiology, Veterans Administration Hospital, St Louis, MO 63125 (Dr Shields).

Edited by Z. Danilevicius, MD, Senior Editor.

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