Chemiluminescence in diagnosis of oral lichen planus

PURPOSE: This study was conducted in order to evaluate how chemiluminescent lighting (ViziLite(R)) could increase the sharpness of margin and contrast to normal mucosa in the diagnosis of oral lichen planus (OLP), the most frequent oral premalignant lesion, compared with direct visual inspection under incandescent light. METHODS: 41 consecutive patients, diagnosed to have OLP with visual inspection under incandescent light, were further examined with chemiluminescent light. The degrees of margin sharpness and lesion contrast were ranked on a scale from 1 to 3 for all patients under visual inspection and chemiluminescent light. The presence of additional lesion only detected by chemiluminescent light, complication, and discomfort were checked for each patient. After both screening tests, biopsy specimens were harvested from all patients with scalpels and histopathologic assessments were done. RESULTS: All 41 patients were diagnosed to have OLP by both visual inspection and chemiluminescent light examination. This result was definitively diagnosed by histopathology. Degrees of margin sharpness and lesion contrast were increased by chemiluminescent light compared with visual inspection, but only the difference of lesion contrast was statistically significant. In 22.0% of patients, additional lesions were detected and 88.9% of them were diagnosed to have OLP histopathologically. 17.1% of patients noted discomfort and 9.8% of patients showed complications after chemiluminescent test. CONCLUSION: Chemiluminescent light may not be proper for the screen test of oral cancer or premalignant lesion but showed some possibility for additional diagnostic tool for definitively diagnosed patients in determination of lesion margin and scope.

A case report of Plunging ranula with metastatic adenocarcinoma

The plunging ranula is a kind of ranula that goes over the mouth floor to the neck and other adjacent tissue. Sublingual gland is gently accepted as origin of plunging ranula. Plunging ranula develops commonly because of rupture of sublingual gland duct by trauma and extravasation of salivary secretion to the adjacent tissue. It is not true cyst so that there is no epithelium. And it consisted with thin connective tissue, inflammation cell infiltration and salivary secretion. Left without treatment, it can grow into the 10 cm more huge lesion. This report is a case of 73 years old female who was diagnosed as plunging ranula with review of literature. She presented 5 cm submandibular swelling at first. When surgery was delayed because of patient's condition, the lesion grew into the 12cm huge size. We performed excision of sublingual gland, submandibular gland and plunging ranula and had a good result without recurrence.

Lemierre syndrome: A case report

Abscesses are common in the oral and maxillofacial area. However, secondary thrombosis of the internal jugular vein accompanying the primary abscess is rare. In 1936, Andre Lemeierre studied 20 patients who showed an initial oropharyngeal infection, septicemia, internal jugular vein thrombosis, and secondary spread of the infection, and after then this condition Lemierre syndrome. Clinically, these patients present with tonsilitis lasting several days, continuous fever, and cervical pain. In the past, ligation and excision of the internal jugular vein was often performed. Current therapeutic modality for this condition is appropriate antibiotic prescription and surgical drainage of abscess. This case report presents a patient who showed symptoms of Lemierre syndrome, initiated as an oropharyngeal infection then developed thrombosis of the internal jugular vein. This patient was admitted into Seoul National University Dental Hospital. In addition to routine antibiotic therapy, surgical incision and drainage of the infection site was performed. Without ligation or excision, the thrombosed IJV disappeared eventually. As the Lemierre syndrome is not a common disease, this case report and review of the literature would be useful regarding a treatment of patients with Lemierre syndrome.