Sialolipoma of Minor Salivary Glands: Presentation of Five Cases and Review of the Literature with an Epidemiological Analyze

Abstract

Sialolipoma is rare benign neoplasm arise from salivary glands (majors and minors) characterized by neoplastic adipose tissue with scattered non-neoplastic salivary gland acinus. To date 60 cases (including 5 cases reported in the present paper) have been reported in scientific literature. This article presents 5 new cases of sialolipoma affecting minor salivary glands (MiSG) and additionally reviews and analyzes the previously published cases to assess possible demographical differences between sialolipoma from minor and from major salivary glands. Case reports: 5 cases (3 females; 2 males; age means 63.8 years), of sialolipoma from MiSG, are reported. 2 of them were located in buccal mucosa, 1 in upper lip mucosa, 1 in floor of the mouth and 1 in retromolar area. All tumors were composed by neoplastic adipocytes cells interlaced with normal salivary gland acinus cover it by a fibrous tissue capsule. Analyzes of literature showed that MiSG sialolipoma is most frequent in females over 60 years old, therefore and in conclusion this article assess different demographical profile of sialolipoma in respect to their topography.

Sialolipomas of minor salivary glands: A multi‐institutional study and literature review

“…Our results, in conjunction with previous reports, show that sialolipomas occur at any age, ranging from newborns to the elderly (mean age 47.1 years). Although previous studies have reported male predominance, 1,12,23 the review of published cases, including the current series, revealed a female preponderance (58.2%), with a female‐to‐male ratio of 1.3:1. Also, differences were observed in the age distribution between sialolipomas of the minor and major salivary glands (Table 1).…”

“…The term sialolipoma was first introduced in 2001 by Nagao et al, to describe tumours characterised by well‐delimitated proliferation of mature adipose tissue with secondary involvement of the salivary gland parenchyma 1 . Since then, 75 well‐documented cases of sialolipomas reported in the literature and 10 new cases in the current series are described involving major and minor salivary glands, 1,3‐28 highlighting the rarity of this lesion. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first multi‐institutional retrospective study with the largest sample of sialolipomas.…”

“…Although some reports have been published in the literature, 1,3‐28 sialolipoma remains poorly characterised, and several salivary gland conditions or tumours with lipomatous components might be confused with this lesion, 21 such as conventional lipoma, lipoadenoma, lipomatosis and pleomorphic adenoma with extensive lipometaplasia 1,2,10,18,22,23 . In addition, recently, some clinical and histopathological differences have been proposed between sialolipomas affecting the major and minor salivary glands, such as sex predilection, size and histological changes such as marked periductal fibrosis, observed mainly in cases involving the minor salivary glands 3,23 …”

Vascular changes in hard palate sialolipoma: Sialoangiolipoma or vascular malformation?

“…The size of hard palate sialolipomas (1–1.8 cm) and their age distribution reported in the literature are closer to that of the present case. [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ]…”

“…[ 1 ] To our knowledge, less than 10 cases from the hard palate are reported. [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ] Here, we report a case of hard palate sialolipoma, peculiar by the intratumor malformation-type vascular patterns.…”