The sensational piece of news is that the famous Alwarpet based Kauvery hospital in Chennai has witnessed 3 cases of Ludwig Angina. In this health condition, an aggressive infection would start from mouth and teeth and it would escalate into swelling in the face and neck. Finally, this might become fatal. The Kauvery hospital has now alerted the Chennai residents regarding the spread of Ludwig Angina.
It is noteworthy that when the infection spreads to tissue spaces surrounding the muscles and bones in the face and neck or fascial spaces, then the inflammatory swelling could spread rapidly.
Those persons who are diabetic and those who have been undergoing immunosuppressive therapy must be very careful as they would have more chances of getting this serious infection in them.
The doctors have explained that infection in the wisdom tooth would result in swelling in the mouth, neck and on the tongue base etc. The infection would also go to vocal chords also. This would lead to reduced mouth opening and swelling of the neck etc. Point is that the involvement of the vocal cords region would lead to immediate inflammation and infection. As a result, the person would have issues in breathing and finally death also.
To drain the pus that has been collected in the neck and in the mouth, a surgical procedure would be needed. Those with Ludwig Angina must be treated immediately and any delay might be fatal.
In the recent 3 cases of this condition witnessed at the Kauvery hospitals, the patients had breathing problems plus issues in swallowing. It must be noted that these patients were in the 60s and they were taken to the operation theatre. To secure their airways, specialised fibre optic intubation techniques were used on them.