Characterising oral lesions in patients who presented with chronic vesiculobullous lesions during a 10-year period.

INTRODUCTION: Vesiculobullous lesions are a subset of lesons with an aetiologic spectrum that ranges from infection to aberrant mmune function. The bulk are chronic immune-mediated or autoimmune diseases in which inappropriate production of antibodies against auto-antigens results in the development of these conditions.

METHODS: All departmenta patient records in the ten-year period were reviewed and those indicating a provisional diagnosis of oral chronic immune-mediated lesions were included in the study. Simple descriptive statistics were used. Chronic immune-mediated conditions included were lichen planus, pemphigus vulgaris, benign mucous membrane pemphigoid, including cicatricial pemphigoid, bullous pemphigoid, erythema multiforme and systemic lupus erythematosus.

RESULTS: The files of forty-five patients (12 males, 33 females) who had been provisionally diagnosed with immune-mediated oral lesions during a ten-year period, from 2001 to 2010, were identified. Of these, 22 (49%) recorded final diagnoses of chronic immune-mediated conditions.

CONCLUSION: This paper characterises the oral lesions of chronic immune-mediated conditions diagnosed in patients attending the oral medicine clinic during a ten-year period.