Oral Medicine — Update for the Dental Practitioner Lumps and Swellings
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IN BRIEF • Lumps have a variety of causes, benign and malignant. • Biopsy, imaging or other investigations are often indicated. 8 Oral Medicine — Update for the dental practitioner Lumps and swellings C. Scully1 and D. H. Felix2 This series provides an overview of current thinking in the more relevant areas of oral medicine for primary care practitioners, written by the authors while they were holding the Presidencies of the European Association for Oral Medicine and the British Society for Oral Medicine, respectively. A book containing additional material will be published. The series gives the detail necessary to assist the primary dental clinical team caring for patients with oral complaints that may be seen in general dental practice. Space precludes inclusion of illustrations of uncommon or rare disorders, or discussion of disorders affecting the hard tissues. Approaching the subject mainly by the symptomatic approach — as it largely relates to the presenting complaint — was considered to be a more helpful approach for GDPs rather than taking a diagnostic category approach. The clinical aspects of the relevant disorders are discussed, including a brief overview of the aetiology, detail on the clinical features and how the diagnosis is made. Guidance on management and when to refer is also provided, along with relevant websites which offer further detail. ORAL MEDICINE This article discusses neck lumps, salivary gland infection. Children and young adults are 1. Aphthous and other swellings, and lumps and swellings in the mouth. predominantly affected (Table 2). Enlarged cervi- common ulcers cal lymph nodes, especially in older people, may 2. Mouth ulcers of more NECK LUMPS also be related to malignant disease in the serious connotation The lymphoid system is the essential basis of drainage area (eg carcinoma) or may be a mani- 3. Dry mouth and disorders immune defences and comprises predominantly festation of systemic disease (eg HIV/AIDS). of salivation bone marrow, spleen, thymus and lymph nodes 4. Oral malodour too. Tissue fluid drains into lymph nodes which Examination of cervical lymph nodes act as ‘filters’ of antigens and, after processing in Inspection of the neck, looking particularly 5. Oral white patches the nodes, lymph containing various immuno- for swellings or sinuses, should be followed by 6. Oral red and cytes drains from the nodes, to lymph ducts and careful palpation of the thyroid gland and all hyperpigmented patches then to the circulation. A lymph node consists of the lymph nodes, searching for swelling or 7. Orofacial sensation and a cortex, paracortex and medulla and is enclosed tenderness. movement by a capsule. Lymphocytes and antigens (if pres- The examination of lymph nodes in the neck is 8. Orofacial swellings and ent) pass into the node through the afferent lym- an important part of every orofacial examination. lumps phatics, are ‘filtered’ and pass out from the About one third of all the lymph nodes in the 9. Oral cancer medulla through the efferent lymphatics. The body are in the neck and dental surgeons can 10. Orofacial pain cortex contains B cells aggregated into primary often detect serious disease through examining it. follicles; following stimulation by antigen these It is prudent to adopt a systematic and develop a focus of active proliferation (germinal methodical approach, examining different 1*Professor, Consultant, Dean, Eastman centre) and are termed secondary follicles. These lymph node groups in turn: Dental Institute for Oral Health Care follicles are in intimate contact with antigenpre- • Submental Sciences, 256 Gray’s Inn Road, UCL, University of London, London WC1X 8LD; senting dendritic cells. The paracortex contains T • Submandibular 2Consultant, Senior Lecturer, Glasgow cells, and the medulla contains T and B cells. • Pre-auricular/parotid Dental Hospital and School, 378 • Occipital Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JZ / Associate Dean for Postgraduate Dental Causes of lymph node enlargement • Deep cervical chain. Education, NHS Education for Scotland, Many diseases can present with lesions in the 2nd Floor, Hanover Buildings, 66 Rose neck but the most common are lesions involving Both anterior and posterior cervical nodes Street, Edinburgh EH2 2NN *Correspondence to: Professor Crispian the lymph nodes (Table 1). should be examined as well as other nodes, liver Scully CBE Nodes enlarge in oral infections or local infec- and spleen if systemic disease is a possibility. Email: [email protected] tions in the drainage area (virtually anywhere in Most disease in lymph nodes is detected in the the head and neck). Most common is an enlarged anterior triangle of neck, which is bounded Refereed Paper © British Dental Journal 2005; 199: jugulo-digastric (tonsillar) lymph node, inflamed superiorly by the mandibular lower border, pos- 763–770 secondary to a viral upper respiratory tract teriorly and inferiorly by the sternomastoid BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL VOLUME 199 NO. 12 DEC 24 2005 763 PRACTICE drainage and nodes are then often firm, discrete Table 1 Causes of cervical lymph node enlargement and tender, but are mobile (lymphadenitis). The Inflammatory Infective Local Bacterial Local infections in the focus of inflammation can usually be found in head and neck the drainage area which is anywhere on the face, Viral Viral respiratory infections scalp and nasal cavity, sinuses, ears, pharynx Herpes simplex and oral cavity. The local cause may not always Herpes zoster Herpangina be found despite a careful search. For example, children occasionally develop a Staphylococcus Systemic Bacterial Syphilis Tuberculosis aureus lymphadenitis (usually in a submandibu- Atypical mycobacterioses lar node) in the absence of any obvious portal of Cat scratch fever infection. Lymph nodes that are tender may be Brucellosis inflammatory, leukaemia or lymphoma; those Viral Glandular fever syndromes that are increasing in size and are hard may be (EBV, CMV, HIV, HHV-6) malignant. Rubella Lymph nodes may show reactive hyperplasia Protozoal Toxoplasmosis to a malignant tumour in the drainage area, or Others Mucocutaneous lymph node swelling because of metastatic infiltration. The syndrome (Kawasaki disease) latter may cause the node to feel distinctly hard, Non-infective Sarcoidosis and it may become bound down to adjacent Crohn’s disease tissues (‘fixed’), may not be discrete, and may Orofacial granulomatosis even, in advanced cases, ulcerate through the Connective tissue diseases skin. The neoplasms that frequently metastasise to cervical lymph nodes are oral squamous car- Malignancy Primary Leukaemias Lymphomas cinoma (Article 9), nasopharyngeal carcinoma, tonsillar cancer and thyroid tumours. Secondary Metastases Usually one or more anterior cervical nodes Other Drugs, eg phenytoin are involved, often unilaterally in oral neo- plasms anteriorly in the mouth, but otherwise not infrequently bilaterally. Table 2 Lymph node swellings at different ages More serious is the finding of an enlarged Decade Most common causes of swelling node suspected to be malignant but where the primary neoplasm cannot be found. Nasopha- First Lymphadenitis due to viral respiratory tract infection ryngeal or tonsillar carcinomas are classic causes of this and an ENT opinion should therefore be Second Lymphadenitis due to viral respiratory tract infection sought. Clinically unsuspected tonsillar cancer is Bacterial infection a common cause of metastasis in a cervical node Glandular fever syndromes of unidentified origin. Biopsy of the tonsil may HIV infection reveal a hitherto unsuspected malignancy. Toxoplasmosis Rare causes of cervical metastases include Third and fourth Lymphadenitis metastases from the stomach or even testicular Glandular fever syndromes tumours to lower cervical nodes. However, in HIV infection Malignancy some patients with a malignant cervical lymph node, the primary tumour is never located. After fourth Lymphadenitis Malignancy Generalised lymphadenopathy with or with- out enlargement of other lymphoid tissue such as liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly), sug- Table 3 Glandular fever syndromes gests a systemic cause. Lymph nodes may also swell when there are disorders involving the Features Adolescents and Sore throat, fever, immune system more generally, such as the young adults lymphadenopathy mainly glandular fever syndromes, HIV/AIDS and relat- ed syndromes, various other viral infections; Causal agents Epstein-Barr virus Cytomegalovirus Toxoplasma gondii Human immune (EBV) (CMV) deficiency viruses (HIV) bacterial infections such as syphilis and tubercu- losis; and parasites such as toxoplasmosis. In the Investigations Paul-Bunnell Test CMV antibodies Sabin-Feldman HIV antibody titres systemic infective disorders the nodes are usual- EBV antibody titres dye test Lymphopenia Specific IgM T4 (CD4) cell numbers ly firm, discrete, tender and mobile. Lymph antibodies nodes may also swell in non infective lesions such as sarcoidosis; mucocutaneous lymph node muscle, and anteriorly by the midline of the syndrome; and neoplasms such as lymphomas neck. Nodes in this site drain most of the head and leukaemias (Table 1). In the latter instances, and neck except the occiput and back of neck. and in the glandular fever syndromes (where Lymphadenopathy in the anterior triangle of the there is lymphadenopathy often together with neck alone is often due to local disease, especially sore throat and fever; Table 3), there is usually if the nodes are enlarged on only one side. enlargement of many or all