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Ankyloglossia: Analysis of 56 Cases Seen in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Osuji AE, Nwogbo A, Nwankwo BE

Introduction: Ankyloglossia is a Greek word meaning “agkilos” –curved, and “glossa” –tongue, also known as tongue-tie. It refers to the presence of an unusually short lingual frenulum which restricts the tongue in achieving its full range of mobility. It causes poor co-ordination of swallowing, with its attendant feeding problems, and subsequently may lead to failure to thrive in some infants. Kotlow in 2004, stated a classification of Ankyloglossia, based on the distance between the insertion of the lingual frenulum and the tip of the tongue. Some patients have persistent associated problems, which only improve with surgical treatment of the tongue-tie. Surgical treatment of ankyloglossia can either be frenulotomy, frenulectomy or frenuloplasty, depending on the degree of the tongue-tie. This aim of this study is to chronicle and analyse the 56 cases of Ankyloglossia seen in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. To highlight peculiar characteristics or patterns identified in these cases.

Patients and method: This study is a descriptive analysis of 56 cases of Ankyloglossia seen in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria from July 2014 to June 2019. These cases were pooled together from medical records of the Ear, Nose and Throat theatre, Hospital Main theatre, and ENT clinic of the University of port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers state, Nigeria. The degree of tongue-tie was categorized using Kotlow’s classification of Ankyloglossia. Results are represented in simple tables and figures.

Results and conclusion: The study is a retrospective study of 56 cases of Ankyloglossia seen in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) from July 2014 to June 2019. There were 38 males and 18 females and an age range of 1 month to 10 years. Associated problems include poor cry and poor speech.