Lipoma with Extraoral Swelling in the Labial Vestibule: Report of a Case

Abstract Lipoma is the most common benign neoplasm of the body with rare occurrence in the oral cavity. It represents 1∼4% of benign neoplasms of the mouth, which affect the buccal mucosa, floor of the mouth, tongue and lips. We report a case of lipoma in the labial vestibule with extraoral swelling, whic h could easily be misdiagnosed as an odontogenic abscess. Excisional biopsy in this case revealed well-circumscribed mass es, surrounded by a thin fibrous capsule and composed of sheets of mature adipocytes, arranged in a chicken wire confi guration. After a computed tomography scan, excisoinal biopsy was done, and there were no recurrence after 5-month follow-up period.Key words:Lipoma, Extraoral, Labial, Vestibule Introduction Lipomas are the most common soft tissue mesenchymal neoplasms with 15% to 20% of the cases involving the head and neck region and they are relatively rare in oral cavity, representing about 1% to 4% affecting the oral cav-ity[1].Intraoral lipomas show higher prevalence in males over age 40[2,3]. In most cases the only symptom is a painless, palpable mass. The cheek is the most favored site, followed by the toungue, floor of mouth and buccal sulcus, lip, palate[3]. Soft and yellowish, well-encapsulated mass is the charac-teristics of intraoral lipoma, but painless swelling can be the only symptom if it lies deep inside the tissue. Therefore, differential diagnosis is important when asymptomatic swelling occurs in oral cavity[4].Surgical excision is the modality of treatment and malig-nant transformation or recurrence is rare[4,5].