INCIDENCE OF ORAL CAVITY LESIONS AND THEIR CLINICO-HISTOPATHOLOGICAL CORRELATION

BACKGROUND: Oral cavity lesions, are a disease of unknown etiology, endemic in India and Indian sub continent affecting mainly age group of 20-40 yrs. 1,2 The incidence of oral cavity lesions is increasing now a days probably due to increasing use of tobacco, Pan masala and also because of better clinico histopathological diagnosis. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: To study incidence and possible etiology of various oral cavity lesions and to study clinical and pathological/ histopathological correlation of oral cavity lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All the cases which were related with history of chewing tobacco and pan masala were recorded. All the selected cases were subjected to scrape cytology or excision biopsy or punch biopsy and were sent for histopathological examination for diagnosis and grading. All the cases were followed for a minimum period of six months and subsequent scrape cytology and histology were done in selected cases. OBSERVATIONS: Maximum number of cases i.e. 45.05 % belonged to 31-40 years and again maximum number of cases i.e. 79.10% are found among males compared to females (21.90%). Most of the cases (47.5%) present with decreased mouth opening followed by ulceration on Buccal mucosa (14.3%). Most (42.85%) belongs to dysplasia grade II, followed by grade I (28.57%). Among squamous cell carcinoma most (5.5%) belongs to well differentiated SCC. The p value is < 0.001 which shows that correlation between clinical and histopathological diagnosis is highly significant. CONCLUSION: In present study, most of the cases were diagnosed clinically as Submucous fibrosis (57.40%) followed by Leukoplakia (17.58%). In this study histopathologically, the incidence of Dysplasia Grade II was found in 42.85% cases followed by 28.57% cases of Dysplasia Grade I. All the cases of Oral cancer were found histologically to be Squamous Cell Carcinoma. In the present study, p value for this correlation is < 0.001 so we conclude that this is highly significant.