Clinical characteristics of lipoma in the submandibular region: Report of a relatively uncommon case and review of the literature in Japan

The lipoma is the most common benign tumor and frequently occurs in the head and neck. The clinical course may develop over a period of years in the form of an enlarging gradually and painless mass. There are reports of huge lipomas extending into the sublingual, submandibular, and parapharyngeal regions. We present here a relatively uncommon case of lipoma extending from the bilateral oral floor to the left submandibular region in a comparably short period of suffering. We investigated preoperative imaging based on previous reports and stressed that the combination of ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging might be necessary for proper diagnosis and treatment. It is critically important to closely examine whether there are aspects of lipoma in the preoperative findings or not and to conduct a complete resection of the tumor and then followed-up after the procedure.