Prevalence of commissural lip pits in population of central Gujarat: A hospital-based study

Commissural lip pits (CLPs) fall among the rare congenital deformities recorded. CLP usually follows dominant hereditary pattern and may be associated with other congenital defects. CLP can appear as unilateral depression or bilateral depression.

To assess the prevalence, age distribution, site and gender predilection of CLP in a central Gujarat population.

Outdoor patients over a period of 6 months were examined for clinical evidence of CLPs.

A total of 14,403 patients were examined for the presence of CLP. CLP was identified in 381 patients with a prevalence of 2.65%. The occurrence of CLP was more in male patients. The maximum number of patients was in the age groups of 20-29 years. No significant statistical difference was observed in the distribution of CLP. Unilaterally distributed CLP was more common on the left side.

Our study showed 2.65% prevalence of isolated CLPs with a male predilection. There was almost equal distribution of unilateral and bilateral CLP. In unilateral cases, the left side was affected the most. Although literature says lip pits can be an associated feature of certain syndromes, there were no syndromic patients in our study.