[Lipomas of the oral cavity--a retrospective study]

Lipomas are the most common soft tissue mesenchymal neoplasms, with 15 to 20% of the cases involving the head and neck region and 1 to 4% affecting the oral cavity. They represent 0.1 to 5% of all benign tumours of the mouth and are usually found as long-standing soft nodular asymptomatic swellings covered by normal mucosa. Few large series of intraoral lipomas and its variants are seen in literature.

This study aimed to assess the clinical and histological features of intraoral lipomas.

A retrospective review was undertaken of medical records and histological studies of 19 patients with histopathologically proven intraoral lipomas, over a 15-year period (from 1992 to 2006) at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Iaşi.

Most of the cases affected adults (18 cases) without gender predilection and the main involved sites were: the floor of the mouth (6 cases), the buccal mucosa (5 cases), the lips (4 cases), the tongue (3 cases) and the buccal sulcus (1 case). The histological analysis revealed 14 cases of common lipomas (3 with infiltrating features), 4 cases of fibrolipomas, and 1 myxoid lipoma. All lesions were surgically removed and none showed recurrence, regardless of the various histological subtypes.

Lipomas should be considered in the differential diagnosis of soft-tissue head and neck masses. Even though several histological types are described, the clinical course and the surgical treatment are similar. Our study confirms the rare incidence of the oral lipomas development. Key words: