Ritwik and Brannon Journal of Medical Case Reports 2012, 6:287 http://www.jmedicalcasereports.com/content/6/1/287 R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E JOURNAL OF MEDICAL CASE REPORTS Open Access A clinical analysis of nine new pediatric and adolescent cases of benign minor salivary gland neoplasms and a review of the literature Priyanshi Ritwik1* and Robert B Brannon2 Abstract Introduction: Minor salivary gland neoplasms of epithelial origin are rare in children and adolescents and most are not well documented, except for a few small series and case reports. This study represents a retrospective clinical analysis of nine cases of benign epithelial salivary gland neoplasms accessioned over a 35-year period at the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry and combines the data with well-documented cases from the English-language literature. Methods: A retrospective clinical analysis of nine cases of benign epithelial salivary gland neoplasms was performed over a 35-year period at the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry and combined with data of well-documented cases from the English-language literature. Results: The nine benign salivary gland neoplasms in patients aged 19 months to 18 years accounted for 2.3% of the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry accessioned salivary gland tumors. These nine cases comprised eight pleomorphic adenomas and one cystadenoma. There were 40 cases in the literature, of which 34 were pleomorphic adenomas. Combining the data for the 42 pleomorphic adenomas resulted in a mean age of 12 years with a 2.8:1 female predilection. The hard palate and/or soft palate were the most common site (69.1%). The average duration and size was 2.1 years and 2.4cm, respectively. Bone involvement occurred in seven cases. Wide local excision was the treatment most often employed. Cases followed for two years or more had a recurrence rate of 13.0%. The remaining seven neoplasms in the combined data comprised myoepithelioma, cystadenoma and sialadenoma papilliferum. Conclusions: A relatively long duration (2 years) of a submucosal mass in a minor salivary gland-bearing area with or without bone involvement occurring in a child or adolescent should raise the question of a possible salivary gland neoplasm. A pleomorphic adenoma is the most common benign salivary gland neoplasm in the first and second decade of life. Complete surgical excision affords the best chance of preventing recurrence for pleomorphic adenomas. The recurrence rate of pleomorphic adenomas with two or more years follow-up is 13.0%. Other types of minor salivary gland neoplasms are exceedingly rare and therefore data is sparse, precluding any valid conclusions. Keywords: Benign tumors, Minor salivary gland, Benign tumors, Pediatric * Correspondence: pritwi@lsuhsc.edu 1Department of Pediatric Dentistry, LSU School of Dentistry, 1100 Florida Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2012 Ritwik and Brannon; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.