Abstract
The lipoma is a benign neoplasm of adult adipose tissue. The tumor may occur in any part of the body where fat exists, but is relatively rare in the oral cavity. In a review of the literature, the incidence of oral lipoma is 0.5-2.5% of all tumors of the oral cavity. The oral lipoma usually is a solitary, well-defined, submucosal, painless and slow-growing lesion. The cheek is the most common reported site, followed by the tongue, floor of the mouth, buccal sulcus, palate, lips and gingiva. A lipoma developing on the lip is relatively rare.
In this paper two cases of lipoma on the lower lip are presented.
Case 1: A 26-year-old man visited our hospital complaining chiefly of a tumor on the left side of the lower lip on April 12, 1982. He first noticed a rice-grain-sized tumor on the lower lip in 1978. The tumor gradually increased in size thereafter and measured 2cm in diameter in April 1982. Clinical examination disclosed a freely movable, domeshaped, elastic soft, yellowish lesion, measuring 2×1.5×1cm in the labial mucosa of right side of the lower lip. The clinical diagnosis was benign tumor and the tumor was enucleated under local anesthesia on April 14, 1982. From the histopathological examination, the diagnosis of simple lipoma was made.
Forty-nine months have passed after the surgery, and there have been no signs of recurrences.
Cases 2: A 65-year-old man. In April 1984, he was found to have a tumor on the right side of the lower lip after he bit his lower lip. Thereafter the tumor had been repeatedly increasing and decreasing in size, but did not decrease following an increase in size in March, 1985. Therefore he visited our hospital on April 12, 1985. Oral examination revealed that the tumor was a well-circumscribed, elastic soft mass measuring 7×7×4mm and part of the surface was whitish area considering hyper-kelatinization. The clinical diagnosis of mucocele on the lower lip was made and the lesion was excised under local anesthesia. Postoperative histopathological examination revealed that the lesion was not mucocele but was simple lipoma.
No signs of recurrences have been encountered during eighteen-month follow-up after the surgery.
