Diagnostic Conundrum: Capillary Hemangioma or Pyogenic Granuloma

Abstract

Pyogenic granulomas and hemangiomas of oral cavity are well-known benign soft tissue lesions. Though pyogenic granuloma is known to occur most commonly on the gingiva and capillary hemangioma on lips, cheek and tongue, occurrence of these lesions on buccal mucosa is rare. It makes clinical diagnosis quite challenging because of such an uncommon location, as they sometimes may mimic more serious lesions such as malignancies. An excisional biopsy was performed under local anaesthesia and excised growth was sent for histopathological examination. This case report presents a case of soft tissue exophytic mass present on the buccal mucosa which was initially thought to be a pyogenic granuloma clinically and turned out to be capillary hemangioma on histopathological examination. In spite of their benign nature, intraoral capillary hemangiomas are always clinically important to be diagnosed well in time and should be managed accordingly.