White sponge naevus: una rara patologia del cavo orale

White sponge naevus (WSN) is a rare, benign, autosomal dominant disorder that involves non cornifying stratified squamous epithelia: predominantly the oral mucosa, less frequently nose, oesophagus, anogenital area. This is an inherited condition, but in literature we can find also case report with negative familial background. Clinically it is characterized by asymptomatic, bilateral, white, soft and spongy plaques in the oral mucosa and the onset is usually in early childhood. The histological features include epithelial thickening, parakeratosis and vacuolization of the suprabasal layer of oral epithelial keratinocytes. In 1995 Richard et all and Rugg et all show that mutation in the mucosal K4 and/or K13, the specific keratins of the buccal, nasal, esophageal mucosae and anogenital epithelia, is associated with WSN. Even if it is a benign condition, it is important to make a differential diagnosis from other white lesions of the oral mucosa, that are potentially malignant. No standard treatment exists, although numerous therapies have been tested. We report a case of a young female patient who presents oral WSN, treated successfully with topical tetracycline; in our case we have used tetracycline ophthalmic cream, because in Italy there is no tetracycline solution.