[Oral leukoplakia. II. Results of a year-long polyclinical pilot study]

A pilot study was carried out on close on 4000 uniformly examined and documented patients of the Erlanger maxillo-facial Policlinic. This resulted in the extensive collection of data useful as a basis for future follow-up studies on leucoplakia patients. Leucoplakia was found in 123 patients (3,1%) including 7 precancerous lesions and 6 mucosal carcinomata. Age and sex distribution of leucoplakia patients and various potential influential factors were statistically compared with a control group of an equal number of outpatients. For each of the factors examined, chronic smoking, chronic alcohol consumption, enoral habits, the connection with the occurrence of leucoplakia was highly significant (alpha less than 0,001).