Association of oral and dermal lesions of lichen planus in patients referring to dermatology clinic of Razi Hospital, 2001∗

Lichen planus (LP) is a common chronic immunologic inflammatory epidermal and mucocutaneous disorder involving skin, oral mucosa and both sometimes, the main cause of which is still unknown. Due to the importance and it’s prevalence, this study was carried out in order to assess the association of oral and dermal lesions in patients referring to Dermatology Clinic of Tehran Razi Hospital during summer of 2001. In this descriptive study, a total of 101 patients with individual involvement of LP in skin or mucosa were selected among 6510 patients referred to Tehran Razi Hospital-Dermatology Clinic. The selected cases were subjected to further and exact clinical examination along with interview, while in suspected lesions, the conducted histopatologic tests obtained by biopsy were used for the evaluation. A questionnaire was completed for each patient after taking history and physical examination, including history of systemic diseases, interacting medication, smoking habits, presence of oral and dermal lesions, the onset of mucosal and skin lesions and the treatment period, oral lesion’s signs and the patients complaint, involvement location, form, manner of distribution, oral lesion history as well as existence of amalgam restorations along side the lesion chi-square used to assess differences for variables. The study revealed 34 percent association of oral and dermal lesions in the study population, while individual dermal lesion were observed in 61.1 percent of patients and individual oral lesions in 4.9 percent. The incidence of oral LP lesions was slightly higher in females in comparison to males (40.4 percent in females and 37.3 percent in males). About 20 percent of patients who gave history of oral LP, reported smoking cigarettes, while there was no case of pipe smoking or different smoking habits. Patients with dermal lichen planus reported a time between 1-6 months passing from their appearance, while the cases with oral lichen planus were unaware of the beginning time of lesions. The most reported symptom of oral lichen planus in the study population was the burning sensation, while the buccal mucosa was the most common site of involvement and reticular form was the high prevalent. High incidence of dermal and oral lichen planus association revealed throughout the study calls the attention for complete systemic examinations of the patients. As this study was carried out in the dermatology clinic, it seems that other studies in dental schools as well as throughout the public will be of necessity and importance to verify the results. According to this study, there was not a significant statistical relationship between LP and other variables.