Oral lipomas in a Brazilian population: A 10-year study and analysis of 450 cases reported in the literature

Abstract

Objectives: Lipomas are common benign mesenchymal neoplasms that rarely occur in the oral cavity and correspond to less than 4.4% of all benign oral soft tissue tumors. This study describes the clinical, radiological and histological features of cases of oral lipomas seen over a period of 10 years and compared the findings with those reported in the literature. Study Design: All cases of oral lipomas seen between 1999 and 2009 were retrieved from the archives of the Stomatology Division of the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. Age, gender, tumor location, clinical findings, duration, histological subtypes, and treatment outcome were recorded. In addition, the English-language literature was searched for studies published between 1966 and 2009. Results: Ten patients (6 women and 4 men) were enrolled in this study. The mean age was 53.4 years (range: 21-73 years). The specific sites involved were the oral mucosa (n=5), vestibule (n=3), gingiva (n=1), and retromolar region (n=1). The mean size of the tumors was 1.94 cm (range 1.0 to 3.0 cm). Radiographically, only one case appeared as a radiolucent area on occlusal film. Microscopically, 4 cases were classified as simple lipoma, 4 as fibrolipoma, 1 as myxoid lipoma, and 1 as angiolipoma. The duration of the tumors ranged from 2 to 84 months, with a mean duration of 30.4 months. All cases were treated by simple surgical excision and there was no recurrence after a mean post-treatment period of 34.5 months. The findings were compared with 450 cases of oral lipomas reported in the literature. Conclusions: Lipomas continue to be an uncommon neoplasm of the oral cavity. Radiography is a valuable tool due to the possible occurrence of bone involvement. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice and recurrence is not expected.

Lipomas of the Oral Cavity: Clinicopathological and Immunohistochemical Study of 24 Cases and Review of the Literature

“…The mean duration between the first awareness of symptoms and treatment was reported to be ranged 31.2-75.8 months [4,7,8,13,15], and our study showed 12 months. The mean tumor size was previously reported to be ranged from 0.8 to 2.6 cm, and our study showed 2.0 cm.…”

“…Most cases of lipoma occur at 60 years of age or older, and are rare in children [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. In our study, the mean age of the patients was 59 years, with only one case being less than 40 years old.…”

“…Their overall incidence accounted for less than 4.4 % of all tumors diagnosed as benign oral mesenchymal neoplasms, and was reportedly 7.5 % in one previous study [2-4, 7, 13]. As recently reported, the causes of lipoma include heredity, fatty degeneration, hormonal abnormalities, injuries, infection, infarction, muscle cell metaplasia, residual embryonic fat cells, and chronic irritation [6,7,10]. In our study, one patient had a history of a traumatic episode.…”

“…The most common site of oral lipomas has been reported as the buccal mucosa, comprising 38.6 % of all cases, followed by the tongue, lip, floor of the mouth and buccal vestibule, palate and retromolar area, gingiva, and others [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Our study also revealed that the most common site was the buccal mucosa, followed by the tongue, lip, and oral floor, and obtained similar results.…”

“…We here analyzed the clinicopathological features and proliferative activities of 24 cases of oral lipomas in our department, and compared the results with 603 cases reported in the literature in English [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”