Oral lichen planus: a condition with more persistence and extra-oral involvement than suspected?

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Forty percent of patients with oral lichen planus report extra-oral manifestations.

Main

Bidarra M, Buchanan JAG et al. J Oral Pathol Med 2008; 37: 582–586

The self-reported lifetime experience of extra-oral manifestations of lichen planus was ascertained by asking 87 patients, with oral lichen planus, to complete a questionnaire. All patients in this study had 'clinical features of oral lichen planus and most had had histopathological confirmation'. Forty percent reported signs and symptoms suggestive of extra-oral manifestations of lichen planus. Most commonly, this involved the nails (27.6%), although 25.3% complained of a persistent sore throat indicative of oro-pharyngeal involvement. Genital involvement was 'relatively infrequent' (10.3%) and 17.2% implied skin manifestations. Seventy percent of those with extra-oral lichen planus 'reported involvement of only one extraoral site'.