Rate and comparison of periapical inflammatory lesions using clinical diagnosis and histopathological findings during the 18-year study period

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Inflammatory Periapical lesions are the most common periapical lesions. These lesions are often diagnosed based on clinical and radiological examination, which may be different from the histological finding. The present study was carried out with aim to assess the rate and to compare clinical and radiographic features with histological diagnosis of periapical pathology.METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted on dental school pathology records in Kerman, Iran, from 1996-2014. Cases with incomplete records and without net histology diagnosis were excluded. Age, gender, site of lesion, clinical diagnosis, and histopathological diagnosis were extracted from the records. The data were analyzed using chi-square test in SPSS software. A P value of 5% was considered as the significance level.RESULTS: 1854 cases met the inclusion criteria. 129 of the cases were periapical inflammatory lesions. The mean age of individuals was 29.39 ± 15.14 years. Periapical cysts were the most incident lesions in clinical and histopathologic diagnosis. An overall of 98.9% of histopatologic diagnoses were compatible with clinical diagnosis. Inflammatory periapical lesions in maxilla were greater and this difference was significant (P = 0.001). Inflammatory periapical lesions were higher among men compared to women, with significant difference (P = 0.001).CONCLUSION: This study showed that periapical cysts were the most incident inflammatory lesions followed by periapical granuloma.