Prevalence of Vesiculobullous Lesions: A Hospital Based Retrospective Study

Abstract

Vesiculobullous lesions, characterized as mucocutaneous, have a significant impact on quality of life when
compared to other conditions, as they can lead to pain and difficulty in eating and speech, depending on the
extent of the ulceration. The overlapping pattern of clinical presentation of vesiculobullous lesions in the
oral mucous membranes makes it difficult for the clinicians to arrive at a proper diagnosis. Hence careful
evaluation of clinical, histological and immunofluorescence data aids the clinician to arrive at a proper
diagnosis. The aim of this study is determine the prevalence, age and gender variations of vesiculobullous
lesions pertaining to oral mucosa among patients who have visited Saveetha Dental College, Chennai, India.
A retrospective study was conducted and data collection was done from dental archives pertaining from June
2019 to April 2020. Data consisted of details of patients who presented with vesiculobullous lesions of the
oral mucosa. Data was imported to IBM SPSS Version 20 for statistical analysis. Results were tabulated.
Prevalence of vesiculobullous lesions pertaining to the oral cavity was more in females (51.8%) compared
to males. (42.8%). Prevalence was more in patients belonging to the fourth decade of life (30.1%). Herpes
labialis was found to be more prevalent among the vesiculobullous lesions seen in the oral cavity. Lesions
were present in both the arch (44.6%) followed by lesions pertaining to only upper arch. Associations in this
study were not statistically significant (p>0.05). The association between age and gender shows prevalence
of herpes labialis to be the highest among all the age groups. There are very minimal studies done on the
prevalence of vesiculobullous lesions pertaining to the oral cavity. In this study it has been found that
vesiculobullous lesions of infectious origin (Herpes labialis) were found to be more prevalent compared to
vesiculobullous lesions of autoimmune origin. This study was conducted in a single centre. Extensive multi
centre study is to be done.