Design of the oral medicine South Africa registry to facilitate surveillance of oral lesions and conditions in SA: Pilot results (2010-2022)

Abstract

Aims: To establish the Oral Medicine database of South Africa (ORMSA). The database will be used to determine the range and frequency of diagnoses of oral medicine pathology in the Oral Medicine and Periodontology Department of the University of the Western Cape. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of patients presenting to the Tygerberg, Mitchells Plain and Groote Schuur Oral Medicine Clinic from 1 January 2010-1 January 2022. Data was obtained from collating histopathological reports and from a review of patient’s folders. A RedCAP® database was created to capture data and export data for further analysis on STATA 14 (StataCorp. 2015). Results: A total of 2021 patients and 2085 biopsy specimens were added to the database. The average age of patients was 42.8 years with a standard deviation of 19.7 (range: 1 month-89 years). Of these; 1087/2021 (53.7%) were women and 786/2021 (38.9%) were male (male: female ratio 1:1.38). The five most observed oral conditions were fibroepithelial hyperplasia 397/ 2085 (19%), squamous cell carcinoma 285/ 2085 (13.7%), pyogenic granulomas 199/ 2085 (9.5%), mucoceles 175/ 2085 (8.4%) and benign human papilloma virus induced lesions 120/ 2085 (12.2%). Conclusion: This study led to the creation of the REDCap®-based ORMSA database. We described the epidemiology of oral lesions in a setting with a relatively high patient volume The reported frequencies of the most prevalent diagnoses were similar to those found in studies from comparable populations, with minor variations. Further research could be conducted to determine risk factors associated with the diverse pathological diagnoses.