Oral Nevi-A Clinicopathological Study of 29 Cases

Abstract

Oral nevi are uncommon oral mucosal lesions. Twenty-nine cases of oral nevi including 21 intramucosal, 2 compound, and 6 common blue nevi were analyzed in this study. These 29 nevi were excised from 8 male and 19 female patients. Two patients each had 2 nevi. The mean age of patients at the time of diagnosis was 33 (range, 7~56) years. The more-common sites for oral nevi were the hard palate (12 cases) and vermilion border (9 cases). All 6 common blue nevi were located on the hard palate. The greatest dimension of the lesion was ≧1 cm in 3 cases and ＜1 cm in 24 cases. Excisional biopsy was the treatment of choice in 27 cases and wide excision in 2 cases. No recurrence of these lesions was found after surgical excision. Type A, type B, type C, and multinucleated giant nevus cells were found in 23 (100%), 19 (83%), 14 (61%), and 12 (52%) of 23 cases of intramucosal and compound nevi. The mean percentages of type A, type B, and type C nevus cells in total nevus cells were 73%±25%, 17%±15%, and 11%±18% in 23 cases of intramucosal and compound nevi, respectively. All 23 cases of intramucosal and compound nevi more or less contained nevus cells with pigmentation which varied from 1% to 91% (mean, 20%±26%). We concluded that the most-common type of oral nevi is an intramucosal nevus. Intramucosal and compound nevi were composed of approximately 3/4 of type A and 1/4 of type B and type C nevus cells. Oral nevi in this study occurred more often in female patients and in the third and fourth decades of life. The more-commonly affected sites were the hard palate and vermilion border. About 90% of these oral nevi were smaller than 1 cm.