Giant hemangioma involving the tongue: A surgical strategy to improve quality of life

Abstract Backgroud Hemangiomas are the most common benign vascular tumors which most frequently occurs in newborns and infants. The skin of head and neck district is often involved, whereas the oral cavity and oropharynx do not. There are many different strategies for the management of head and neck hemangiomas, including wait and see policy, drug therapy, sclerotherapy, cryotherapy, radiotherapy, laser therapy and surgery. The treatment plan must consider aspects such as size, location, lesion hemodynamics and patient’s age. Case presentation We describe a case of a 38-years-old male complaining dysphagia, dyslalia and dyspnea, moreover, the patient referred episodic bleeding from the oral cavity. At clinical examination a giant vascularized lesion involving the tongue and occupying almost all the oral cavity and oropharyngeal space was observed. Surgical approaches for macroglossia can be considered in case of benign vascular lesion of the tongue when other therapies have failed and/or patient’s clinical condition requires early intervention. Conclusions The aim of this case report is to describe our surgical strategy to manage a giant vascular malformation of the tongue and improve quality of life through a median glossectomy with trapezoidal wedge resection of the tongue, as previously described for surgical management of macroglossia.