Skull vault osteoma
Skull vault osteomas are benign primary bone lesions that are commonly incidentally discovered. They are less common than paranasal sinus or mandibular osteomas.
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Epidemiology
Osteomas are more common in middle-aged men 1,3.
Clinical presentation
Skull vault osteomas are typically asymptomatic but may present as painless, slow-growing masses or with compressive symptoms 2,4.
Pathology
Skull vault osteomas are juxtacortical in location and can be sessile or pedunculated and arise from the outer table (most commonly), intradiploic space, or inner table 1. They can extend into the paranasal sinuses but do not cross cranial sutures 1. Most commonly, they occur in the frontal and parietal bones 4.
Associations
- Gardner syndrome if multiple skull vault osteomas are present 1,3
Radiographic features
See main article: Osteoma for further details.
Differential diagnosis
- calcified meningiomas can mimic pedunculated inner table osteomas 3
Treatment and prognosis
No treatment is required if asymptomatic. Symptomatic osteomas are typically surgically excised 4.
Related Radiopaedia articles
Bone tumours
The differential diagnosis for bone tumors is dependent on the age of the patient, with a very different set of differentials for the pediatric patient.
-
bone tumors
- bone-forming tumors
- cartilage-forming tumors
- fibrous bone lesions
- bone marrow tumors
- other bone tumors or tumor-like lesions
- adamantinoma
- aneurysmal bone cyst
- benign fibrous histiocytoma
- chordoma
- giant cell tumor of bone
- Gorham massive osteolysis
- hemangioendothelioma
- haemophilic pseudotumor
- intradiploic epidermoid cyst
- intraosseous lipoma
- musculoskeletal angiosarcoma
- musculoskeletal hemangiopericytoma
- primary intraosseous hemangioma
- post-traumatic cystic bone lesion
- simple bone cyst
-
skeletal metastases
- morphology
- location
- impending fracture risk
- staging
- approach
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