Common Causes Of Jaw Bones Swelling Among Yemenis (A Prospective Descriptive Hospital Based- Study)

Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the common causes of jawbone swellings, common affected sites, the relationship of these causes to the age, gender of the patients and compare the findings of this study with many previous studies from various countries. Material and methods: The study design as a prospective descriptive hospital-based study, carried out at Al-gomhori teaching hospital in Sana'a Republic of Yemen. Material consists of 125 patients who attending to the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery and to the consultant unit of head and neck oncologic surgery and diagnosed clinically, radiographically as having jawbone swellings. Histopathological results of biopsy were used to confirm the diagnosis. Data; were collected from clinical examination of the patients (interview, inspection and palpation of the suspected swelling), patient history(using questionnaire sheet), radiographs and histopathological examinations. They entered the computer and analysis using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 24. Results; were presented as simple frequencies and descriptive statistics. Chi-square test used to assess the association and the level of significance among categorical variables. P-value less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results: Sixty eight of 125 patients(54.4%) were males and 57 (45.6%) were females, giving a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. Patients age ranged from 3 to 80 years with a mean age of 28.8 years ± 17.9 years. The majority of patients (80.0%) were in their 1st to 4th decades of life, with a peak incidence(40.8%) was found in the third and fourth decades of life. The most common causes of jawbone swellings were, jaw cysts, benign tumors (odontogenic and non-odontogenic tumor/tumor like-lesions) and malignant tumors, accounting 40.0%, 39.2% and 20.8% respectively. Conclusion: Jawbone swellings were observed more commonly in male patients, with a male to female ratio of 1.2:1 They may be found on any age of patients, with average age of 28.8 years (age range from 3-80 years). Jaw cysts were the most common causes of jaw bones wellings, following by benign tumors (odontogenic and nonodontogenic tumor/ or tumor lick-lesion) and malignant tumors which accounting 40.8%,39.2% and 20.8%.