Orofacial tumors in Libyan children and adolescents. A descriptive study of 213 cases M. Elarbi a, * , R. El-Gehani b , K. Subhashraj b , M. Orafi b a Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Alfatah University, Tripoli, Libya b Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Garyounis University, Benghazi, Libya Received 9 August 2008; accepted 21 October 2008 Available online 12 December 2008 1. Introduction Studies on the tumors and tumor like lesions of maxillofacial region in children had been reported from many countries [1—12]. Although the incidence of tumors in children had been studied in detail in various countries, very less data is available on the incidence of tumors among the Arab population. The difficulty in comparing the results from the studies around the world had been highlighted earlier by some authors, owing to the absence of uniformity in the study criteria [9,12]. Viral infection, nutritional deficiencies, trauma, alcohol, tobacco products and genetic predisposi- tion are some of the etiological factors involved in the pathogenesis of tumors of orofacial region. It is not surprising to find that most of the orofacial tumors seen in the young population are benign in nature [6—13]. The aim of this study was to determine the relative frequency of orofacial tumors and tumor like lesions in Libyan children and adolescents, and International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology (2009) 73, 237—242 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijporl KEYWORDS Orofacial tumors; Tumor like; Children; Adolescents; Libyan Summary Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the relative frequency of orofacial tumors and tumor like lesions in Libyan children and adolescents, and compare our findings with reports in the literature. Methods: A total of 213 cases of tumors and tumor like lesions were seen in patients aged 18 years and less during a period of 17 years. Results: There were 8 cases (3.7%) of malignant tumors in our study, 35 cases (16.4%) of benign odontogenic tumors and 170 cases (89%) of benign tumors and tumor like lesions of orofacial region were seen in this study. orofacial tumors are not uncommon among the Libyan children and adolescents. Conclusion: A slightly lower incidence of malignant tumors was observed as a result of the less number of cases of Burkitt’s lymphoma, in comparison to other reports from Africa. # 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +218 924505753. E-mail addresses: omfslibya@rediffmail.com, subhashben06@rediffmail.com (M. Elarbi). 0165-5876/$ — see front matter # 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijporl.2008.10.013