A descriptive study based on the secondary analysis of the Unique System of Information database, Subsystem 13 of Hospital discharges to oral cancer of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) during the decade from 1991 to 2000, it was considered all the registrations for oral cancer according to the International Classification of Diseases ICD-9. During that time, 8,800 hospital discharges were registered for oral cancer, out of which 64.6% (n = 5682) were men. The men: women ratio showed 1.8 men per admitted woman for oral cancer. The mortality gross rate for oral cancer was of 50.4 for each 100,000 hospital discharges with a significantly descendent trend. Hospital discharges rate by age group was specifically concentrated in population to 35 years-old or more, registering themselves the greater rates as of the 55 years-old. The hospital average stay was of 5.1 days. According to the topography of the oral cavity, we found that the tongue (25.1%), principal salivary glands (24.0%) and tonsil-oropharynx (14.2%) were the main places where this pathology presented. During the above decade, the oral cancer hospital discharges registered in the IMSS didn't show an increasing pattern.