Unusual clinical presentation of actinomycosis mimicking mucocele

Actinomycosis of the Lower Lip: Report of a Case

“…A histological examination plus bacterial culture has been considered the gold standard for diagnosing cervicofacial actinomycosis [ 2 ]. However, in the previous reports of actinomycosis of the lip, five of six cases were not clinically considered a bacterial infection [ 7 , 8 ]. Consistent with these reports, in the present case, the clinician initially suspected a benign submucosal tumor rather than an infection, and a bacterial culture was not performed.…”

“…From the anatomical viewpoint, it is speculated that the lip is unlikely to be infected with anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria. In fact, we identified only six cases of actinomycosis of lip in a search of the PubMed database [3][4][5][6][7][8]. We have presented a patient with actinomycosis of the lip treated by surgical excision and would like to stress three important points learned from this case.…”

“…Although cervicofacial actinomycosis is the most frequent clinical form of actinomycosis, this disease is rare nowadays due to its high sensitivity to most antibiotics and the general improvement in oral hygiene [3]. Actinomycosis of the lip is very rare; we identified only six cases in the international literature in a search of the PubMed database using the search terms "actinomycosis" and "lip" [3][4][5][6][7][8]. In this report, we present an additional case of actinomycosis of the lip and discuss the diagnostics, therapeutics, and pathogenesis.…”