Pattern of oral cavity lesions in a tertiary care hospital in Manipur, India

Objective: To study the pattern of various oral cavity lesions in a tertiary care hospital in Manipur, India. Materials and Methods: This is a 5 year retrospective study from January 2006 to December 2011. All the oral cavity specimens received in the Department of Pathology, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) during the study period was included for the study. Data such as age, sex, and site of the lesion was collected and restaining of the slides with hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) was performed whenever required. Data's collected were analyzed. Results: A total of 119 cases was analyzed during the study period. Age ranged from 3 to 90 years in the study. Overall females were affected more than the male with male:female (M:F) ratio of 1:1.5. Buccal mucosa (26.9%) was the commonest site involved followed by tongue (26%). Neoplastic lesions accounted for 61.4% cases and nonneoplastic accounted for 38.6% cases. Among the neoplastic lesion, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was seen in 82% cases; verrucous carcinoma and ameloblastic carcinoma in 5.1% cases each; and mucoepidermoid carcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma, and small cell carcinoma in 2.6% cases each. Most of the neoplastic lesions were located in the tongue (30.8%), followed by buccal mucosa (28.2%), alveolus (5.1%), floor of mouth (10.3%), and palate and lips (12.8%) each. The M:F ratio of the neoplastic lesion was 1:1.2. Chronic inflammatory lesions accounted for the maximum number of nonneoplastic lesions (26.1%), followed by fibrosis (23.9%), and fibrous hyperplasia and cystic changes, 17.4% each. Epulis accounted for 10.8% and ranula and hamartoma accounting for 2.2% each. The commonest site of involvement was gingiva and buccal mucosa with 32.6% each. Conclusion: A variety of lesions were encountered in the study with predominance of malignant lesions. SCC was the commonest malignant lesion. A larger epidemiopathological study in this region needs to be carried out.