Oral leukoplakia. A retrospective study of clinical and histological data

Abstract

In this retrospective study, the charts of 91 patients who presented with oral leukoplakia at the Department of Oral Surgery and Stomatology at the University of Berne from August 1995 to December 2001 were analyzed. Critical points in the evaluation included the distribution of age and gender of the patients, type and localisation of the oral leukoplakias, grade of dysplasia, presence and type of potential noxious agents, type of surgical/nonsurgical therapy, and follow-up. The 91 patients included in this study had a total of 145 leukoplakias. Gender distribution corresponded to 39 women and 52 men. Age distribution showed a marked peak in the range of 50-59 years. Sixty-six patients were smokers and 44 patients drank alcoholic beverages on a daily basis. The most frequent localisation of oral leukoplakias was the buccal mucosa (24.5%) followed by the attached gingiva in the mandible including the so-called Trigonum retromolare (17.4%) and the floor of the mouth and ventral tongue (16.8%). Thirty-two of the 52 histologically examined lesions had no epithelial dysplasia, while 14 of the lesions only had a mild and three of the lesions a moderate dysplasia. Of the biopsies taken, three were histologically confirmed to be a carcinoma in situ.