Doctor trying to figure out why some COVID-19 patients develop massively enlarged tongues

[SheltieLover]

https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/covid-houston-doctor-patients-enlarged-tongues/285-5f6fd5ac-e1c0-48b2-a99c-dd41fc9e79fa

HOUSTON — Doctors in Houston are trying to figure out why a handful of people hospitalized with COVID-19 develop massively enlarged tongues.

The condition is called macroglossia. It makes it impossible for patients to eat and talk. Dr. James Melville with the UTHealth School of Dentistry has become a specialist in dealing with the condition. He has performed surgeries to help patients regain use of their tongues.

When KHOU 11 first reported on the condition last fall, Dr. Melville said there were only two documented cases in the United States. Since then, he has heard about seven more patients. Out of the nine cases, all had been intubated in a hospital. Eight out of the nine are Black. Two had suffered strokes and the other seven were hospitalized with COVID-19 prior to developing macroglossia.


More at link. CAUTION: Graphic pictures at link.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Maybe Covid and being in the prone position affected the lymph nodes.

[tanyev]

2. How awful.

Creeps me out when the dentist has to deaden you in a spot that makes it feel like your tongue is enormous.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

3. Wow that's scary

Having my tounge swell up like that would put me in a perpetual state of panic.

I so hate covid. Fucking disease.

[tirebiter]

4. Had a similar thing happen

When a bee stung me on the tongue. It had flown into a soft drink. I was made aware when I took a drink...

[dalton99a]

5. Hope they have tried compression

https://casereports.bmj.com/content/bmjcr/13/7/e237108.full.pdf
Lingual compression for acute macroglossia in a COVID-19 positive patient

We describe a 40-year-old woman with severe, persistent macroglossia following prone positioning as part of treatment for COVID-19. We used the treatment method of lingual compression with satisfactory results.

[greenjar_01]

7. "Dr. James Melville with the UTHealth School of Dentistry has become a specialist in dealing with...

...the condition."

[roamer65]

6. Too bad former didn't have it.

It would have shut him up.

[JCMach1]

8. Covid gave me Hidradenitis Suppurativa among other things... Weird autoimmune

Stuff is pretty normal, actually

[EYESORE 9001]

9. As I've noted previously

COVID-19 is like a Swiss Army knife, with many tools in its arsenal with which to eff you up. This one, however, was surprising.