Prevalence and distribution of solitary oral pigmented lesions: a prospective study.

Solitary pigmented lesions are uncommon in the oral mucosa. A review of the literature reveals no information regarding the relative frequency of these lesions. The purpose of this study is to determine the relative prevalence of solitary oral pigmented lesions in a selected population of patients. This study includes 265 consecutive patients who accessed the dermatology out-patients' surgery of the Department of Dermatology, University of Florence between March 2006 and July 2007. The sample we studied presented 5.7% of oral pigmented lesions; the most frequent being vascular lesions. Despite the various methods used, the differential diagnosis for these particular lesions is not always easy. There is some difficulty in distinguishing between a benign pigmented lesion and a growing melanoma which, though rare (1% of all oral malignancies), is a serious and often fatal disease. Therefore, biopsy with histological exam represents the diagnostic gold standard.