Ameloblastomas are locally aggressive tumors of odontogenic epithelial origin, representing about 1% of the cysts and tumors of the oral cavity. The present study reports a case of a 41 years old woman, with a painless swelling of the jaw with 2 years of slowly growth. The clinical examination showed an expansion in mandible with displacement of the teeth involved. The radiographic exam demonstrated large radiolucent multiloculeted with cortical expansion and resorption of the teeth adjacent to the tumor. The patient was taken for tomographic exam and a prototype of the jaw was made to guide the modeling of the mandibular reconstruction plate. The treatment consisted of partial resection of the mandible with a safety margin and implantation of the reconstruction plate under general anesthesia. On the thirteenth postoperative day, a obstruction of the tracheotomy tube caused a respiratory arrest and the resuscitation maneuvers probably caused a breakdown of the sutures and a plate exposition occurred. The patient was taken to another surgical approach under general anesthesia to remove the exposed plate and was hospitalized for another 34 days evolving with retraction of soft tissues. Although the first surgical approach was not successful, the patient had a multidisciplinary care with the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, General Surgery, Intern Medicine, Fonoaudiology, Physiotherapy and Nutritional team and is being prepared to another reconstructive surgery. The multidisciplinary treatment is very important specially in those cases that had postoperative complication.

Conflict of interest: None declared.