EXCLUSIVE: Two pregnant women grow TUMORS on their lips and tongues after suffering injuries while chewing on food
Two pregnant women have developed tumors on their lips and tongue after suffering injuries, one of which was caused by chewing food.
A 26-year-old from Saudi Arabia suffered the benign growth on the right side of her lower lip after a ‘minor trauma’. The mass started small but grew into a nearly 0.7 inch tumor, about the size of a dime, that bled.
A 43-year-old from the same country also suffered from a tumor on her tongue, which developed after she bit it while eating.
The growths – diagnosed as capillary hemangiomas caused by the abnormal growth of blood vessels – are believed to be rare on the lips, although researchers say this may be because many cases are misdiagnosed.. They are reported more regularly on the tongue.
Pregnancy can increase the risk of these growths because the higher estrogen levels can cause additional blood vessel growth.
A 26-year-old woman from Saudi Arabia experienced the above-mentioned growth after sustaining an injury to her lips. She was pregnant at the time
A 43-year-old woman suffered from a similar growth on the side of her tongue
Doctors surgically removed the tumor from the 26-year-old woman after applying local anesthetic to the area.
She was subsequently discharged and given antibiotics to reduce the risk of infections.
She returned a week later and the doctors said her lip was healing well.
The tumor was allowed to grow for four months before the woman, who was otherwise healthy, sought medical attention. She was in her third trimester of pregnancy when it appeared.
The 43-year-old’s tumor appeared about two weeks after she injured her tongue while eating.
It was about 0.3 inches in diameter, doctors said, before it was removed through surgery. She was in her second trimester at the time.
Capillary hemangiomas occur when an overgrowth of small blood vessels called capillaries causes a red or purplish raised lump to appear on the skin.
They can be caused by injuries to the lips, doctors say. The body will grow new blood vessels to repair this damage, but their growth can go wrong, leading to blood vessel overgrowth that causes the condition.
Pregnant people may be at greater risk because they have higher levels of estrogen, which makes this hormone more able to bind to blood vessel cells and cause them to multiply.
Only three cases of the condition have previously been recorded on the lips.
Two of these were in men and one in a woman, with two of these individuals being adults while the third was an adolescent.
One of the patients had also suffered a lip injury, similar to the last patient.
Doctors said the tumors may be so rare on the lips because they are often misdiagnosed as pyogenic granulomas – a non-cancerous skin growth that appears as a small, reddish lump.
They may also be rarely reported in the medical literature.
Cases are more commonly reported on the tongue, which could be related to the fact that it contains more blood vessels, increasing the risk of these tumors.
Doctors surgically removed the growth, which had been swelling steadily for four months
The other woman’s growth was also surgically removed
Above you see the lips of the 26-year-old woman after the operation. She came for a check-up a week after the procedure
Above is the woman’s tongue after the tumor was removed, which emerged while she was eating
Capillary hemangiomas, a subtype of hemangiomas – which includes all tumors caused by the overgrowth of blood vessels – are more common in infants and children and are related to abnormal development of blood vessels in the uterus.
The growths are most common on the head and neck, which doctors say may be because this part of the body has the most blood vessels.
The team from King Saud University in Riyadh said in the report: ‘After thorough investigation, only three case reports of superficial protruding lip mass were found in the literature.
‘Although hemangiomas can occur anywhere on the body, they are most commonly found in the head and neck.’
The cases were revealed in the American Journal of Case Reports.
Dr. Alsheikh and others added in the report: ‘Although hemangiomas can develop in any part of the body, the head and neck are most commonly affected.
‘Because they are visible from the outside, these lesions are usually quickly recognized by patients and treating physicians and therefore diagnosed clinically.
‘These vascular lesions usually resolve on their own in most patients.
“But they are surgically excised (removed) if discovered early, for both cosmetic and functional reasons.”