Ascending necrotising fasciitis as a result of odontogenic infection: a report of two cases.

Necrotising fasciitis is a severe soft tissue infection which spreads rapidly through fascial planes, is characterised by soft tissue necrosis and is potentially life-threatening. It is a rare entity in the head and neck region. The management of this condition is difficult and early diagnosis and aggressive surgical and medical management are essential. This paper reports two cases of necrotising fasciitis as a result of ascending odontogenic infection involving the temporalis muscle.

Solitary fibrous tumour of the oral cavity: report of two cases.

The solitary fibrous tumour is an uncommon, benign neoplasm of adults involving the pleura. It is now recognised to occur in extrapleural sites. Only a limited number of cases have been reported in the oral cavity. This paper reports two further cases, which presented as clinically benign masses in the palate and buccal mucosa respectively.

Early relapse following bilateral sagittal split advancement.

Early relapse following bilateral sagittal split advancement (BSSA) was assessed by evaluating the cephalograms of 47 patients. The records were assigned to either screw fixation (SF: n = 25) or wire osteosynthesis (WF: n = 22) groups and subdivided if additional Le Fort I osteotomy was performed. 9 skeletal parameters were evaluated. The results showed that there were relatively minor differences between the screw and wire osteosynthesis groups in the first 6 weeks following surgery. Relapse of 11 percent and 22 percent was recorded respectively but this difference was not statistically significant. Relapse was not correlated with the preoperative mandibular plane, altered posterior facial height, gonial angle or changes in gonial arc radius in either group. A clear association between condylar displacement and relapse tendency was not expressed. This suggests that whilst condylar position remains important, early postsurgical relapse is due to multifactorial influences.

The accuracy of computer generated prediction tracings.

The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of Quick Ceph and its ability to prepare prediction profiles by using the records of 16 patients who had mandibular advancement via sagittal split osteotomy. The results of this study showed that Quick Ceph tended to overestimate horizontal landmark position and underestimate vertical changes. However, the mean differences and standard deviations were less than values reported for manually prepared prediction profiles. If this imprecision is taken into account during treatment planning for mandibular advancement, then Quick Ceph offers a reasonably accurate method of prediction without imposing heavily upon time or artistic licence.

Lingual haematoma leading to upper airway obstruction.

A case is reported in which upper airway obstruction occurred in a patient following suturing of his lacerated tongue under local anaesthesia and the subsequent development of a large lingual haematoma.