Lingual Abscess: Predisposing Factors, Pathophysiology, Clinical Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Management

Table 1

Demographic data.

	Patient 1	Patient 2	Patient 3	Patient 4	Patient 5	Patient 6
Sex	Man	Man	Woman	Woman	Man	Woman
Age (year)	55	52	52	46	58	59
Underlying diseases	None	DM & HT	None	DM & HT	None	None
Clinical presentations	Odynophagia, Dysphagia, Dyspnea	Odynophagia, Localised pain	Odynophagia, Dysphagia, Limit tongue movement	Odynophagia, Dysphagia, Dyspnea	Localized pain, Refer pain to ear	Tongue mass, Localised pain
Duration of symptoms	1 week	1 week	1 week	4 days	1 week	10 days
Prior treatment	None	None	Amoxicillin	None	Amoxicillin	Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid
Physical examination	Marked swelling of BOT, partial occluded OP airway	Antero-lateral tongue swelling & fluctuation	Swelling of FOM & BOT	Swelling of FOM & ventral tongue, partial occluded OP airway	Swelling of BOT & fluctuation with marked tender	Antero-midline tongue mass
Body temperature (°C)	Low grade fever (38°C)	Afebrile (36.6°C)	Afebrile (36.6°C)	Afebrile (37.5°C)	Afebrile (37.3°C)	Afebrile (37°C)
Location of tongue abscess	Rt posterior 1/3	Lt anterior 2/3	Lt FOM & posterior 1/3	Midline FOM & antero-ventral surface	Lt posterior 1/3	Midline anterior 2/3
Deep space of neck infection	None	None	Sublingual abscess	Sublingual cellulitis	None	None

DM: diabetes mellitus, HT: hypertension, FOM: floor of mouth, BOT: base of tongue, OP: oropharynx.