A rare case of vascular leiomyoma arising on the upper lip is reported with a dis-cussion of related papers.
A 77-year-old woman presented with a complaint of a painless tumor which gradually grew larger. She first noticed the lesion 2 years 8 months previously.
A small finger-tip-sized tumor was observed on the mucous membrane of the upper lip. It was movable, soft, elastic and had a smooth surface that did not deviate from the color of the normal mucosa.
Resection of the tumor was performed under local anesthesia. The suspected diagnosis was a salivary gland tumor of the lip.
The possibility of an angioma was considered during operation, because the tumor was dark red.
Macroscopically, the surgical specimen was a solid-grey tumor, suggesting either a salivary gland tumor or a vascular tumor.
Histopathologic examination indicated a diagnosis of a vascular leiomyoma, which belonged to capillary type according to Morimoto's classfication.
A review of 59 cases of oral vascular leiomyoma reported in Japan, indicated frequent disagreement between the preoperative and pathological diagnosis, which suggested difficulty in the clinical diagnosis of this tumor.
