Tongue hamartomas in pediatric patients: an international case series and literature review

Bilateral lipomatous hamartoma of the tongue: A case report in a child with oral‐facial‐digital syndrome type VI

“…The smooth muscle was the most predominant component in tongue hamartomas, followed by the association between smooth muscle and adipose tissue. Less cases exhibited a predominance of adipose tissue, neurovascular, salivary gland parenchyma, and blood vessels 6,8 . We emphasize that the morphological aspects are essential for the final diagnosis and the immunohistochemical study, in turn, is not very useful.…”

“…Hamartomas are overgrowths of mature tissue that are usually present at the affected site. Although scattered adipocytes are seen on the tongue, in hamartomatous lesions this component is abundant and merges with other normal tissues 6 …”

“…Clinically, they often present as asymptomatic and normochromic nodules with a smooth surface, but tongue hamartomas can vary between exophytic, nodular and polypoid lesions, both sessile and pedunculated. 6,7 …”

“…Previous literature reviews on published case reports in pediatric patients have shown that, although tongue hamartomas are more frequent in newborns, as they may be congenital, the age of patients ranges from 15 h to 12 years old, with a mean age of 2 years at the time of diagnosis. Moreover, a slight female predilection was seen and the male:female ratio raged from 1:1.47–1:2 6,8 . Although the time of diagnosis can also be quite variable, as the lesions are commonly congenital, slow‐growing, and asymptomatic, the most frequent clinical hypotheses are lingual thyroid, thyroglossal duct cyst and choristoma 6,7 …”

“…Moreover, a slight female predilection was seen and the male:female ratio raged from 1:1.47–1:2 6,8 . Although the time of diagnosis can also be quite variable, as the lesions are commonly congenital, slow‐growing, and asymptomatic, the most frequent clinical hypotheses are lingual thyroid, thyroglossal duct cyst and choristoma 6,7 …”