Resection of Floor of the Mouth Lipoma

Christopher Kalmar, MD, MBA

Product Details
Product ID: ACS-6171
Year Produced: 2020
Length: 6 min.


Lipomas are common benign mesenchymal tumors that originate from mature adipocytes throughout the body, with 13-20% occurring in the head and neck region, however only 1-4.4% affects the oral cavity, where they are found predominately in the cheek, followed by the tongue, lip, palatal mucosa, gingiva, and most rarely, in the floor of the mouth. Oral lipomas represent 0.5-5% of all benign oral cavity neoplasms, occurring most frequently in the buccal mucosa, and most rarely in the floor of the mouth. Herein, we present a multimedia analysis of the successful removal of a rare floor of mouth lipoma in a 58-year-old female. Learning points include (1) functional preservation and stenting of Wharton's ducts is critical to minimize risk of postoperative sialocele formation, (2) patients require 23 hour observation following resection of floor of mouth lesions due to expected postoperative edema which necessitates airway monitoring, (3) complete resection of lipoma is necessary to minimize risk of long-term recurrence.