Resumen de Oral lichen planus - retrospective study of 563 Croatian patients

Vice Budimir, Ivica Richter, Ana Andabak Rogulj, Vanja Vucicevic Boras, Jozo Budimir, Vlaho Brailo

• Objectives: To investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of oral lichen planus (OLP) in a group of Croatian patients seen between 2006 and 2012.

  Study D esign: A group of 563 patients with a diagnosis of OLP was retrospectively reviewed in our clinic. Data regarding age, gender, medical history, drugs, smoking, alcohol, chief complaint, clinical type, localization, his - tology, treatment and malignant transformation were registered.

  Results: Of the 563 patients, 414 were females and 149 were males. The average age at the diagnosis was 58 (range 11-94). The most common site was buccal mucosa (82.4%). Most of our patients did not smoke (72.5%) or consume alcohol (69.6%). Patients reported oral soreness (43.3%), mucosal roughness (7%), xerostomia (3%), gingival bleeding (2%) and altered taste (0.5%) as the chief complaint, while almost half of them were asympto - matic (44.2%). The most common types of OLP were reticular (64.8%) and erosive (22.9%). Plaque-like (5.7%) atrophic/erythemtous (4.3%) and bullous (2.3%) type were also observed. Malignant transformation rate of 0.7% was recorded.

  Conclusions: OLP mostly affects non-smoking middle-aged women. Buccal mucosa is the most commonly af - fected site. In almost half of the cases patients are asymptomatic. In spite of the small risk for malignant transfor - mation all patients should be regularly monitored.