Clinopathologic Studies Of Mixed Venous-lymphatic Malformations

Objective: To evaluate clinopathologic characteristics of mixed venous-lymphatic malformations in oral and facial regions.Materials and Methods: A retrospective study of 132 postoperative mixed venous-lymphatic malformations were performed in Stomatology School, Wuhan University from June,1994 to Feb,2004 .Lesions' immunoreactivities for NF and VEGFR-3 were assessed and were compared with those of colloid tumor and oral cancer as a control. The results were analyzed with the histopathology of the lesions.Results: In the 132 mixed malformation cases, there were72 male and 60 female. The largest lesions were spread to several anatomic areas and the smallest lesion was 0. 5cm in diameter. 84 cases were located in the tongue and others were in the parotid area, lip, cheek and other areas. Among mixed vascular malformations, prominent venous components with lymphatic or venular components were commomly found (56%) . Among the mixed vascular malformations without sclerotherapy on the tongue , few NF was seen around the vessels. But the expression of VEGFR-3 was strong positive in all the lesions. NF and VEGFR-3 immunoreactivities were positive in the control. Conclusions: Most of the mixed venous-lymphatic malformations are located in the tongue. The commonest histologic type is venous components with lymphatic and/or venular components and decrease of nerves is commomly found.