PREVALENCE OF ORAL LESIONS IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE

Objective: To obtain precise data on the prevalence of oral lesions in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: Oral lesions were carefull y sought in a consecutive series of 198 Italian IBD outpatients, 77 wi th Crohn's disease (CD) and 121 with ulcerative colitis (UC); 89 subje cts with functional intestinal motility disorders served as controls. Results: The oral lesions detected were angular cheilitis (in 7.8 % of CD patients, 5 % of UC patients, and 0% of controls (p < 0.05, patien ts vs controls), lichen (6.5, 5.8, and 3.3%, respectively, p = not sig nificant), aphthous ulcers (5.2, 5.8, and 5.6%, respectively, p = not significant), candidiasis (5.2, 0.8, and 0%, respectively, p < 0.05, C D patients vs controls), benign tumors (5.2, 0, and 7.8%, respectively ,p < 0.05, patients vs controls), leukoplakia (5.2, 11, and 3.3%, resp ectively, p = not significant), and, less frequently, glossitis and he rpes labialis. No specific CD oral lesions were observed in this serie s. No correlation was found between clinical disease activity and freq uency of oral lesions. Conclusions: Aphthous ulcers are not common in IBD patients. Oral candidiasis is more frequent in CD than UC patients and controls.