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

Table 4

Clinical manifestation, location of abscess, and management of our case series and case series from literature review.

Variable	Our case series (n=6)	Literature review (n=13)	Total patient number (n=18)
Clinical presentation
Pain + tongue swelling & no dyspnea	4	11	14
Dyspnea & airway distress	2	2	4
Abscess location
Anterior 2/3 (+ Middle 1/3)	3	8	10
Posterior (base of tongue)	3	5	8
Sublingual space infection
Present	2	2	4
Absent	4	11	14
Anaesthesia
LA	1	11	12
GA	5	2	6
Drainage
Needle aspiration	-	7	7
I & D	6	4	9
Aspiration + I & D	-	2	2
Tracheostomy
Required	2	-	2
Non-required	4	13	16

LA: local anaesthesia, GA: general anaesthesia, I & D: incision & drainage.