BACKGROUND Prenatal tongue development may affect oral-craniofacial structures, but this muscular organ has rarely been investigated. METHODS In order to document the physiology of prenatal tongue growth, we histologically examined the facial and cranial base structures of 56 embryos and 106 fetuses. RESULTS In Streeter's stages 13-14 (fertilization age [FA], 28 to 32 days), the tongue prot...

BACKGROUND Postsurgical oral and oropharyngeal cancer patients may experience pharyngeal clearance problems after completion of postoperative radiotherapy. METHODS Swallowing was examined in six patients using videofluoroscopy for up to 1 year after surgery. Biomechanical analysis was used to mark movement of the tongue base and posterior pharyngeal wall during swallowing. RESULTS The major...

BACKGROUND Multilevel pharyngeal surgery is routinely indicated for patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as both a first-line treatment and for patients whose disease is refractory to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment. Tongue-base reduction surgeries to correct relative macroglasia are rapidly gaining traction as useful treatments for OSA. Novel techniques an...

BACKGROUND Head and neck oncologists are often confronted with the difficult challenge of balancing cancer cure with the preservation of function when deciding the patient's best treatment protocol. This task is especially difficult in cancer of the base of tongue. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the beavertail modification of the radial forearm-free flap in base of tongue reconst...

In a preliminary prospective randomised study, a series of 5 patients submitted to classic Tongue Base Reduction with Hyo-Epiglottoplasty (TBRHE according to Chabolle et al., 1998) is compared to a series of 7 patients submitted to a modified version of Chabolle's procedure. The changes introduced in the new surgical technique can be summarised as follows: a) lower neck skin incision; b) differ...

Objective. To report a rare presentation of pleomorphic adenoma, at base tongue, excised surgically by a transoral midline glossotomy technique without mandibulotomy. Case Report. Pleomorphic adenoma is a benign tumor of the salivary gland found rarely in the base of tongue. Surgery is the definitive treatment for this tumor, and different approaches have been mentioned in the literature. In ou...