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

Palate sialolipomas are rare. Less than 10 cases located in the hard palate are reported to our knowledge. We report a case of hard palate sialolipoma, peculiar by the intratumor vascular patterns. A 67-year-old man presented with a 1.5 cm lesion of the oral hard palate. The lesion was surgically resected. On microscopy, the lesion, partly encapsulated, consisted of a proliferation of mature adipocytes containing normal minor salivary gland tissue and branching intratumoral vessels of varied size with irregularly thickened wall and papillary projections or tufts. The microscopic features of the tumor we report suggest that vascular malformation-like patterns may occur in sialolipomas of the hard palate. This morphological vascular peculiarity should be acknowledged since it may represent source of hemorrhage.