Al-Mohaya Maha, Treister Nathaniel, Al-Khadra Ons, Lehmann Leslie, Padwa Bonnie, Woo Sook-Bin
Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
J Oral Pathol Med. 2007 Oct;36(9):570-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0714.2007.00557.x.
Calcineurin inhibitors (cyclosporine and tacrolimus) have been used as the mainstay immunosuppressive therapy for solid organ and hematopoietic cell transplantations (HCT) to prevent allograft rejection and for prophylaxis and treatment of the chronic graft-versus-host disease. Adverse effects of these drugs include nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, hypertension and gingival hyperplasia. Association of oral non-gingival soft tissue hyperplasia with calcineurin inhibitor therapy has only recently been recognized and is thought to occur infrequently. We present four cases of oral non-gingival inflammatory fibro-vascular hyperplasias attributed to the use of calcineurin inhibitors following solid organ transplantation and HCT. These lesions interfere with function and must be differentiated from other oral lesions, and therefore should be surgically excised.
