Incidence of reactive hyperplastic lesions in the oral cavity: a 10 year retrospective study in Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: Reactive hyperplastic lesions develop in response to a chronic injury simulating an exuberant tissue repair response. They represent some of the most common oral lesions including inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia, oral pyogenic granuloma, giant cell fibroma, peripheral ossifying fibroma, and peripheral giant cell lesions. Objective: The incidence of those lesions was investigated in an oral pathology service, and the clinical characteristics, associated etiological factors, concordance between the clinical and histopathological diagnostic was determined. Methods: A total of 2400 patient records were screened from 2006 to 2016. Clinical features were recorded from biopsy reports and patients’ files. Results: A total of 534 cases of reactive hyperplastic lesions were retrieved and retrospectively studied, representing 22.25% of all diagnoses. The most frequent lesion was inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia (72.09%), followed by oral pyogenic granuloma (11.79%), giant cell fibroma (7.30%), peripheral ossifying fibroma (5.24%), and peripheral giant cell lesions (3.55%). Females were predominantly affected (74.19%), the gingiva and alveolar ridge were the predominant anatomical site (32.89%), and chronic traumatism was presented as the main etiological factor. The age widely ranges from the 1st decade of life to the 7th. Clinically, the reactive hyperplastic lesions consisted of small lesions (0.5–2 cm) and shared a strong likeness in color to the oral mucosa. The concordance between the clinical and histopathological diagnostic was high (82.5%). Conclusion: Reactive hyperplastic lesions had a high incidence among oral pathologies. The understanding of their clinical features helps to achieve a clearer clinical and etiological diagnosis, and the knowledge of factors related to their development. This may contribute to adequate treatment and positive prognosis.