Anatomic basis of head and neck infections

The head is the portal for all infections acquired by ingestion and inhalation. The oropharynx, with its fine microbiologic niches around the teeth, serves as a source for endogenous pyogenic infections of the head and neck. The anatomic connections of the head with the mediastinum through extensions of the deep cervical fascia, and the intracranial venous sinuses connected through emissary veins to the facial veins, make infections of this region the most dreaded. Perhaps no other set of lymph nodes in the human body is challenged as frequently by microbiologic insults as the cervical lymph nodes.