Tongue abscess: a rare clinical entity

Swelling of the tongue is a rare clinical entity. It is a potentially life-threatening condition, as it could result in airway compromise. The differential diagnosis of acute tongue swelling includes hemorrhage, infarction, abscess, tumor, and edema. A tongue abscess should be considered in all cases of acute tongue swelling, especially when host defenses are severely impaired. Although the diagnosis of lingual abscess can be reached clinically because of the rarity of the condition, in neglected cases, the diagnosis can be difficult. Despite of the rarity and complexity of this condition, its management strategy is relatively simple. In the present study, we describe a case of a tongue abscess on the anterior two-thirds of the tongue in a 60-year-old woman, and discuss the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this complex entity.     

Simultaneous actinomycosis with aspergillosis in maxillary sinus

We report a case with review of literature of actinomycosis accompanied with aspergillosis arising in unilateral maxillary sinus, in which it was completely cured after endoscopic sinus surgery and short term antibiotic therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report in literature reporting actinomycosis in combination with aspergillosis in the paranasal sinus. Also, we suggest short term antibiotic therapy within one month may be sufficient if the surgical opening of paranasal sinus involved by actinomycosis could be well preserved.     

舌的肌电检测

本文介绍三种舌肌肌电检测方法，并就舌肌电信号的检测结果作简要讨论。     

Death from actinomycosis

Death from actinomycosis, although unusual today, was devastating at one time. Although commonplace today, using antibiotics to save patients from death was unusual when penicillin was first introduced over 50 years ago.     

Acute cervico-facial actinomycosis

Cervico-facial actinomycosis still occurs occasionally and should be included in the differential diagnosis of infectious processes in the jaws and the oral cavity. The typical actinomycosis-cases are clinically chronic in nature; however actinomycosis may be atypical with subacute or acute clinical manifestations. Among 37 cases of infectious processes in the jaws treated with extraoral incision between 1980 and 1985 in the Department of Oral Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, University of Berne, 3 (8%) were diagnosed as acute actinomycosis according to the following procedure. Prior to incision, pus was aspired under aseptic conditions. Presence of gram-positive branched filaments in the microscopically examined pus led to the suspicion of actinomycosis. This diagnosis was confirmed by cultivation of Actinomyces israelii using the anaerobic culture method, biochemical characteristics and gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of metabolic products. These 3 actinomycosis-cases were successfully treated by surgical removal of the suspicious foci and by administration of clindamycin per os for 16 days.