Division of Vascular Anomalies, Chinese Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Chinese Stomatological Association
[Summary] Lymphatic malformations，traditionally called lymphangiomas, are the disease caused by congenital abnormal development of lymphatic system. About 90% of the cases occur within 2 years except a few cases occur in adult, and approximately 75% of the lesions were located in the head and neck region. The lesions would grow rapidly with infection,trauma or bleeding, result in destruction of figure as well as severe impairment of respiration，swallow and speech. Although lymphatic malformations are benign lesions, they rarely involute spontaneously, their infiltrating nature coupled with the difficulty in distinguishing involved important structures of head and neck from adjacent normal tissue makes complete surgical resection even more difficult. The likelihood of postsurgical recurrence and complications is thus higher than other vascular lesions. Surgical resection，sclerotherapy and laser therapy are currently the main modalities for the treatment of lymphatic malformations. Due to the advantage and disadvantage which exist in each modality, the selection of treatment modalities should depend on the patient’s status and technique available. The treatment protocol should be individualized and comprehensive as well as sequential, to obtain the best treatment outcomes in complete cases. Based on the published literatures and clinical experiences, we establish a treatment guideline in order to provide a criteria for the management of oral and maxillofacial lymphatic malformations.This protocol will be renewed and updated to include and reflect the cutting edge knowledge, and provide newest treatment modalities to benefit our patients.
[Key words] Oral and maxillofacial region；Lymphatic malformations；dental laser tips