Albagieh H, Aloyouny A, Alshagroud R, Alwakeel A, Alkait S, Almufarji F, Almutairi G, Alkhalaf R. Habitual khat chewing and oral melanoacanthoma: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2023; 11(2): 449-455 [PMID: 36686340 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i2.449]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ashwag Aloyouny, Doctor, Doctor, Basic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Academic Rd W, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia. aloyouas-j@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Hamad Albagieh, Rana Alshagroud, Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Science Department, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh 12372, Saudi Arabia
Ashwag Aloyouny, Basic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz Alwakeel, Oral Medicine, Ministry of Health, Tabuk 00000, Saudi Arabia
Shahad Alkait, Fatimah Almufarji, Ghadeer Almutairi, Rana Alkhalaf, Postgraduate, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Albagieh HN served as the patient’s oral medicine specialist and contributed to data collection; Aloyouny AY reviewed the literature and contributed to data collection, data interpretation, and manuscript drafting; Alshagroud RS served as the patient’s oral pathology specialist and contributed to data collection and data interpretation; Alwakeel AA, Alkait SS, Almutairi GG, Almufarji FS, and Alkhalaf RS contributed to data collection, data interpretation, manuscript drafting, and manuscript revision; all authors have issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient to publish this case report and accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ashwag Aloyouny, Doctor, Doctor, Basic Dental Science, College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Academic Rd W, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia. aloyouas-j@hotmail.com
Received: October 14, 2022 Peer-review started: October 14, 2022 First decision: November 22, 2022 Revised: December 4, 2022 Accepted: December 21, 2022 Article in press: December 21, 2022 Published online: January 16, 2023 Processing time: 89 Days and 19.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Habitual khat (Catha edulis) chewing has been proven to cause numerous oral tissue changes. However, oral melanoacanthoma triggered by chronic khat chewing is rare. Oral melanoacanthoma is an uncommon, sudden, asymptomatic, benign pigmentation of the oral cavity. Under the microscope, the epithelial layer of the oral mucosa showed dendritic melanocyte proliferation and acanthosis. The study aimed to highlight chronic khat chewing as a trigger for oral melanoacanthoma.
CASE SUMMARY
In the current study, we report a case of a 26-year-old male patient with a rare presentation of oral melanoacanthoma triggered by regular khat chewing. Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors can cause oral pigmentation. Chewing khat is an extrinsic factor that can cause several diseases, including oral pigmentation. In this case, the definitive diagnosis was oral melanoacanthoma. This diagnosis was made based on the patient’s history, clinical lesion presentation, and microscopic biopsy results.
CONCLUSION
Habitual khat (Catha edulis) chewing causes many oral tissue changes including oral melanoacanthoma. The study aimed to highlight chronic khat chewing as a trigger for oral melanoacanthoma.
Core Tip: Habitual khat chewing causes many oral tissue changes including oral melanoacanthoma. Oral melanoacanthoma is a rare and benign oral pigmentation rarely triggered by khat chewing. The patient in the current case with a khat chewing habit presented with unilateral, diffused, and dark pigmentation in the oral mucosa.
