“Pattern of acquired lip defect in Benin-City, Nigeria”

Background: Though numerous case reports on various techniques of reconstruction of acquired lip defects have been documented globally in the literature, it appears few studies have been reported on the pattern of acquired lip defects. Aim: The aim of this study is to report the pattern of aetiology, presentation, treatment and outcome among patients with acquired lip defects. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study on patients with acquired lip defects patients treated in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) from April 2012 to April 2022. Data were collected from the case notes retrieved from the medical record department and these data were the age, gender, occupation, causes of defect, lip affected, the extent of defect, volume of defect, type of reconstruction, and outcome of treatment. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Results: More than half (54.2%) of the patients were males with a mean age of 32.7 years. Road traffic accidents (33.3%) followed by human bite (29.2%) were the most common causes of acquired lip defect while the least (4.2%) cause of acquired lip defect was craniomaxillofacial infection. More than half (58.3%) of the patients presented with large full thickness defect while partial thickness defect was the least (8.3%) seen. The highest (68.3%) proportion of the patients had primary closure reconstruction followed (16.7%) by local flap reconstruction with the Abbe-Estlander technique. The majority (95.8%) of the patients had favorable outcomes following the lip reconstruction. It was observed that there was significant variation among the different occupations as regards the volume of defects (P<0.05). Conclusions: There was a high favourable reconstruction outcome despite the choice of mainly primary closure on most large acquired defects. The occupation of the patients is a strong factor in the type of volume of defect.