Oral lichen planus in children: A systematic review / Liquen plano oral en niños: una revisión sistemática

ABSTRACT

Background: Oral Lichen Planus is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the oral mucosa. The prevalencein adults ranges between 0.5% and 2%, while in children is reported to be about 0,03%. Clinical features of OralLichen Planus could be variable in both adults and children, ranging from painless white hyperkeratotic lesions topainful erythematous atrophic ones.Actually, there are no systematic reviews in the literature on OLP in children, whereby this paper aims to sum-marize all the pathophysiological aspects and identify all cases described in the literature of Oral Lichen Planusin children, reporting their clinical characteristics.Material and Methods: A systematic review of the literature was performed in online databases including PubMed,Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, EMBASE. In addition, in order to identify reports not otherwise identifi-able, an analysis of the gray literature was performed on google scholar and in Open Gray.Results: By literature analysis, it emerged that most cases were reported from India. The mean age at time of diag-nosis of the disease was 11 years, ranging from 3 to 17 years. The most frequent pattern was the reticular patternfollowed by plaque-like, erosive, atrophic, sclerosus, and bullous. The buccal mucosa was the most involved oralsite, followed by the tongue, lips and gingiva.Conclusions: Although Oral Lichen Planus in children is rare, it may cause oral discomfort and need to be dif-ferentiated from other oral white lesions and/or chronic ulcers.(AU)