A Multi-Centre Evaluation of Tongue Lesions in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

Background: The tongue is a muscular hydrostat that forms the floor of the mouth, perform functions like mastication, speech, taste and osculation. The tongue is relatively affected by both oral and systemic conditions in all ages and acts as a “mirror” for oral manifestations of systemic diseases. Prevalence of tongue lesions varies due to demographic and/or geographic differences of the sample studied, differences in the diagnostic criteria, methodological approaches, and sampling methods employed. Objective: To determine the socio-demographic distribution of different categories of tongue lesions and their oral presentations. Methods: Information were retrospectively retrieved from Maxillofacial Clinical and Surgical day cases registers. Data such as age, gender; duration of lesion and location of lesions on the tongue and category of lesion were also extracted using relevant descriptive and inference statistics All statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Ninety- two cases were recruited retrospectively from two tertiary centers with a male preponderance of 53.3% (n= 49). The mean age of presentation of tongue lesions in the study is 41.1years  22.4 years, dorsum of the tongue presented the highest number of occurrences of tongue lesions (52.2%). The most common lesions on the dorsum of the tongue in this study are squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), benign migratory glossitis and irritation fibroma. The mean age of presentation for benign lesion is 23years, inflammatory/reactive lesion 44.9years and malignant lesions 51.6years respectively. The mean duration of tongue lesions in our study is 9.1 months (median = 6 months), mean duration of presentation of benign lesions (14.8 months) was longer than that of malignant lesions (6.4 months). The association between duration and category of lesion is statistically significant at p < 0.0001. Conclusion: Delayed clinical presentation by patients and patronage of unorthodox traditional doctors contribute to the overtly increased incidence of oral malignancies in Sub-Saharan Africa; this coupled with improper or lack of accurate record keeping may have also culminated in this increased prevalence of oral malignancies. All tongue surfaces can be affected, gender predilections for any of the surfaces is yet to be affirmed by any study however aging is related to malignant occurrences.