<b>Frequency of clinical patterns of oral lichen planus</b>

Background Lichen planus is one of the chronic autoimmune inflammatory mucocutaneous disorders that affects stratified squamous epithelium. It affects skin, oral and genital mucous membranes, and nails and scalp. Oral Lichen planus is more common than cutaneous forms and is resistant to treatment. It presents as reticular, erosive and atrophic lesions. One of the serious complications of oral form of Lichen planus is the development of squamous cell carcinoma. We want to ascertain different clinical patterns of oral lichen planus in our population.   Objective To find out the frequency of different clinical patterns of oral Lichen planus in population presenting in a tertiary care hospital.   Methods It was a Cross sectional study that was carried out in Department of Dermatology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, on 100 patients meeting the inclusion criteria. Patients were explained the details of study, written informed consent was taken. Patients were examined clinically and their age, gender, duration of disease and the clinical type of oral lichen planus and the site of lesions were recorded in the predesigned proforma.   Results Out of 100 patients, 38 were men and 62 were women. The mean age of the patients was 40±10 years. The mean duration of disease was 5.4±6 years. Among the various clinical patterns, the isolated reticular pattern was found in 65% of patients, the erosive pattern was seen in 28% of patients, the atrophic pattern was seen in 7% of patients. 42% of patients had no concomitant skin lesions while 58% had skin lesions along with the oral lesions. The buccal mucosa was most frequently involved, seen in 61% of patients with the most common pattern i.e. isolated reticular pattern. When stratified oral LP was highest among the age group of 41 to 50years and among those with duration between 1 to 5 years. There was a remarkable relationship among duration of disease (p=<0.001) and age (p=0.04) of patient with the pattern of disease, however there was no remarkable relationship among gender (p=0.63) and disease pattern. Erosive oral LP showed longest duration.   Conclusion The most frequent clinical pattern of oral lichen planus identified in this study was reticular pattern and the most frequent site of involvement was buccal mucosa. The second most common pattern was erosive pattern and atrophic pattern was the least common pattern observed. Erosive LP showed the longest duration.