Vascular leiomyoma, first reported by Stout in 1939, is a benign tumor of smooth muscle. It frequently occurs in the skin and subcutaneous tissues, especially the lower extremities, but seldom arises in the oral cavity.
We report a case of vascular leiomyoma arising in the upper lip. An 82-year-old man was referred to our clinic because of a painless tumor of the upper lip. He had had the lesion for more than 10 years. Sonographic examination revealed a 21×13×9mm benign tumor with calcification. Clinically, it was diagnosed as a calcifying epithelial tumor, and enucleation of the tumor was performed. Microscopically, the tumor was composed of numerous blood vessels surrounded by smooth-muscle-like tumor cells, with some areas of calcification. The histopathological diagnosis was vascular leiomyoma. The postoperative course at 21 months has been uneventful.
A review of 55 cases of oral vascular leiomyoma reported in Japan indicated frequent disagreement between the preoperative and pathological diagnoses, suggesting difficulty in clinical diagnosis of this tumor.
