Congenital Midline Sinus of the Upper Lip

Abstract

Congenital sinuses of the upper lip are extremely rare anomaly. Only 17 cases have been reported in English literature. They were described as a pit which was the opening of a blind sinus, sometimes penetrated the orbicularis oris muscle, but had no connection with the oral cavity. The pit was reportedly located in a lateral or midline area. There are a few theories regarding the etiology of this rare anomaly, but the exact cause still remains obscure. We report a 4-year-old boy with congenital midline sinus of the upper lip. The sinus had a pit-like opening in the midline philtral area with a duct extending into 14 mm posteroinferiorly. It was excised by extraoral elliptical excision. Histopathological examination showed that duct was covered with stratified squamous epithelium.