Epignatus: manejo quirúrgico y multidisciplinar. Un caso clínico.

Abstract

Epignathus are a rare presentation of congenital teratomas. As they arise from the oral cavity and pharynx they often cause severe airway obstruction leading to high mortality rates. Therefore, prenatal diagnosis is essential to establish a treatment plan. The “ex-utero intrapartum treatment” or EXIT is the gold standard procedure to ensure the upper airway flow. If feasible, early complete resection should be performed as it plays a key role in the prognosis. Several malformations are related to epignathus, most of them due to the mass effect of the epignathus growth during fetal development. Some of them include cleft palate, micrognathia or anterior-posterior maxillomandibular discrepancy with open bite. We report this case to highlight the importance of an optimal surgical treatment for epignathus, and to describe an example of the complex multidisciplinary management needed for this rare entity. Furthermore, we also propose some techniques that could be implemented to improve the surgical outcomes, like stereolithographic models or virtual three-dimensional reconstruction (3D).