[Anesthesia risks in inflammatory processes in the floor of the mouth-neck region (author's transl)]

Anesthesia for surgical treatment of extensive floor of the mouth-neck phlegmons has a particularly high risk rate. The general condition of the patients to be treated is poorer; respiratory passages are constricted by inflammation-induced swelling. The resulting hypoxia is a main factor in the pluricausal origin of hyperreflexia. Three cases selected from the author's own patients show the problems which occur with this particular clinical picture. The consequences of an adequate preparation for and induction of anesthesia were presented.