Ludwig’s Angina

FMS Dental Hospitals has an in-house operation theatre and a 24/7 monitoring intensive care unit with fully assisted experienced staff to manage the situation and provide adequate support to the patient.

As the size of the swelling is considerably large, patients will be dehydrated and compromised due to the inability to chew or swallow. To prevent this, we at FMS will administer adequate diet and nutritional support to the patient intravenously. The patient will be monitored and all the vital signs assessed by experienced staff to ensure a speedy recovery.

The experienced team at FMS, including anesthetists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons, will manage the airway obstruction, which is critical, followed by administration of IV, antibiotics, and analgesics to reduce the micro bacterial load in the area. For patients who don’t respond well to the initial antibiotics or in the case of a sizeable swelling, care needs to be given first to reduce the swelling and its associated contents. This is done by performing incision and drainage to reduce the pressure/infectious content inside the swelling. Corrugated rubber drains will be placed at multiple sites to reduce the pressure within the swelling and to prevent further spread, as any failure to intervene immediately can lead to a lot of complications including death.

After maintaining the vital signs, the foci of infection will be addressed. The cause should be removed at the earliest to prevent the further spread of infections. Dental extraction needs to be done after the primary management to eliminate the source of infection.