Ricerc@Sapienza

BACKGROUND : in recent years we recorded an increase in the number of hospital admissions due to odontogenic abscesses and neck phlegmons requiring surgery. We believe that the cause may be related both to the rationalization of funding allocation procedures in public health service making access to public dental healthcare more difficult, and the financial situation of Italian families. STUDY DESIGN: longitudinal retrospective study.

Odontogenic abscesses are among the most common diseases of the oral and maxillofacial region with potentially severe complications such as airway obstruction or spread in the mediastinum if not correctly and promptly diagnosed and treated. Caries and periodontitis are universally recognized as the most common causes, followed by postextraction conditions, pericoronitis related to the third molar inclusion, and infected dental cysts.

lemierre’s Syndrome is a rare and almost forgotten, yet potentially life-threatening, disease presenting with anaerobic germ infections of the head and neck, associated thrombophlebitis in the internal jugular vein and sprawl of metastatic infection in lungs and various other organs such as liver and brain. the main pathogenic agent is Fusobacterium necrophorum, an anaerobic gram-negative bacillus, although other infectious agents can be responsible of the condition.