Benign Orofacial Vascular Anomalies: Review of 47 Cases in Enugu, Nigeria

A study of oral vascular anomalies has not been conducted in Nigeria to provide baseline data for comparison with reports in the literature.

To study the prevalence and distribution of benign orofacial vascular anomalies at a tertiary hospital in Enugu.

This is a 10-year retrospective observational study of consecutive patients with orofacial vascular anomalies, diagnosed by histology. The clinic-pathologic information was obtained from records archived in the department, and descriptive analysis was used to determine the frequency, tables for categorical variables, and a Chi-square test to determine the statistical significance.

There were 47 cases of benign vascular anomalies out of 897 orofacial lesions giving a prevalence of 5.2%. There were 35.4% (17) male and 64.6% (31) female patients. The mean age in this series was 37.4 ± 19.8 (range: 1 to 76 years). Pyogenic granuloma was the most common vascular lesion 78.7% (37), followed by hemangioma 14.9% (7) and lymphangioma 6.4% (3). The gingiva was the most frequent site of oral occurrence 65.9% (31), especially maxillary gingivae 48.9% (23). The type of orofacial vascular anomalies was significantly associated with the anatomical site of occurrence, P = 0.00. The mean ages for the occurrence of pyogenic granuloma, hemangioma, and lymphangioma were 37.7 ± 18.3, 50.7 ± 16.9 years, and 3.3 ± 3.2 years, respectively. Pain was a frequent occurrence in 36.2% (17) of anomalies.

Oral vascular anomalies predominantly presented as pyogenic granuloma on the gingivae, while oral hemangioma was observed in adults, and lymphangioma was infrequent.