Initial Clinical Investigation Of Vulvar Lichen Planus

Lichen planus (LP) is an inflammatory, autoimmune, mucocutaneous disorder with multiple clinical variants that may occur as part of more widespread disease or in isolation. In addition to affecting keratinized skin of the trunk, extremities and nails, LP often affects the oral and vulvovaginal mucosa. The lesion which involves the oral cavity is known as oral lichen planus (OLP). Many patients with OLP have no subjective symptom. When patients eat something pungent, hot, sour or salty, they will be suffer from pain. OLP can become chronic and has a potential for malignant change, the World Health Organization(WHO) presume this disease as a kind of possible precancer. The canceration rate is about 0.4-5.6%. The lesion which involves the vulvovaginal mucosa is known as vulvar lichen planuus (VLP).The VLP may cause itching, burning, pain, dyspareunia and destruction of the vulvar and vaginal architecture, because of the location and other reasons, to date, there have been very few studies of VLP, So we adopted clinical investigation to study the morbidity rate of VLP and the relationship between VLP and OLP.Objective:To investigate the morbidity rate of VLP patients affected by OLP, regardless of the genital symptoms reported; To definite the clinical types of VLP; To investigate the possible relationship between VLP and OLP.Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed with a mean follow-up of 6 months. The patients who visited Stomatological Hospital of Shandong University from Oct, 2007- Mar, 2008 were 70 patients with a definite clinical and pathological diagnosis of OLP.Results:The mean age at onset of LP was 49 years old. 61 patients were found to have signs of buccal mucosa involvement, 23 patients were found gingival involvement, 17 patients were found tongue involvement and 10 were found lips involvement, 11 were found skin involvement ,there were 35 patients whose lesion involved only one site ,and 35 patients involved two or more sites.5 patients were found to have signs of genital involvement, of which 4 patients were female. There were 3 patients whose lesion was erosive VLP and 2 patients were papulosquamous VLP.Conclusion:1,The study showed that 87% (61/70) was found to have signs of buccal mucosa involvement,32% (23/70) was found gingival involvement, 17 patients were found tongue involvement and 10 were found lips involvement, there were 35 patients whose lesion involved only one site ,and 35 patients involved two or more sites .The main variants were reticular and erosive type.2,There were 7.14% (5/70) patients were found to have signs of genital involvement,of which 4 patients were female. There were 3 patients whose lesion was erosive VLP and 2 patients was papulosquamous VLP.3,There were 4 female VLP patients whose lesion mainly involved gingiva, whichmay indicate that the patients with gingival lesions increased the accompany possibility of VLP.