title: Benign or malignant? Case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Necrotizing sialometoplasia (NS) is a disease in which the clinical and sometimes even histological features can be confused with those of a malignant tumor, but which is in fact a self-limited inflammatory lesion of the salivary glands.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors present a case study of a 43-year-old female patient who came to the ENT Emergency Department with a painful ulcerated lesion of the hard palate. The lesion was 8 days old and had appeared after an abdominoplasty. Given the clinical need to rule out a malignant neoplasm, a biopsy was performed: the histological result was NS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors make a literature review and stress the importance of differentiating between NS and salivary gland neoplasia. Histology is essential in case of ulcerated neoformation of the oral cavity, to adapt treatment, avoiding unsuitable approaches.
authors.affiliation: ORL Department, Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho-EPE, Rua Conceição Fernandes, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bernardo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tente
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Helena
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gerós
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva
mesh_terms: D061645:Abdominoplasty / Q000009:adverse effects; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015391:Gastroplasty; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000009:adverse effects; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000150:complications; D012797:Sialometaplasia, Necrotizing / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology