Oral lipoma extending superiorly from mandibular gingivobuccal fold to gingiva: a case report and analysis of 207 patients with oral lipoma in Japan

Lipoma is relatively uncommon in the oral cavity. Among the intraoral regions, lipoma involving the gingiva or gingivobuccal fold is relatively infrequent. We report the case of a patient with lipoma extending superiorly from the mandibular gingivobuccal fold to the gingiva. In addition to the case report, we retrospectively reviewed 207 patients with intraoral lipoma reported in Japan from 1987 to 2004. The most frequent site of development was the buccal mucosa (40.6%), followed by the tongue (17.9%), lip (12.6%), gingiva (8.7%), oral floor (6.8%), gingivobuccal fold and palate (4.8%), and others (3.9%). Occurrence tended to be more frequent in males (57.5%) than in females (42.5%). Relative to age, frequency peaked among patients in the 7th (27.3%) and 6th decades (25.1%), respectively, followed in descending order by the 5th (14.8%) and 8th decades (13.1%). The majority of patients (86.3%) were at least 40 years. The most frequent size was 10–19 mm (37.5%), followed by 0–9 mm (27.8%) and 20–29 mm (14.6%), and tumors 30 mm or larger were relatively infrequent. Histopathological types in order of descending frequency were lipomas (69.0%), fibrolipomas (27.4%), and others (3.5%). The male:female ratio was 1.7:1 for lipoma and 1:1.6 for fibrolipoma.