Plunging or Cervical Ranula as a Rare Cause of Respiratory Distress

Vipulkumar V Gandhi; Komal Chopra

doi:10.1007/s12070-023-04419-4

Plunging or Cervical Ranula as a Rare Cause of Respiratory Distress

Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024 Apr;76(2):2156-2157. doi: 10.1007/s12070-023-04419-4. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

Authors

Vipulkumar V Gandhi^{1

2}, Komal Chopra³

Affiliations

¹ Department of PICU, K.E.M Hospital, Rasta Peth, Pune, 411011 India.
² Imperial Multispecialty Hospital, Chikhali, Pune 411062 India.
³ Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College & Research Centre, Pune, 411018 India.

PMID: 38566706
PMCID: PMC10982136 (available on 2025-04-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s12070-023-04419-4

Abstract

The Plunging or cervical ranula is a mucus pseudocyst extension of the sublingual gland that is located below the mylohyoid muscle. In infants, owing to small sublingual and cervical space, clinically large cervical ranulas can lead to a significant impact on swallowing, crying, and even breathing (Carlini et al. in Pediatr Rep 8(4):6576, 2016; Övet et al. in Turk Arch Otorhinolaryngol 53(3):133-135, 2015). In these clinical pictures, we present a case of cervical ranula that grew in a short period leading to respiratory distress. This ranula was aspirated in a PICU setting to relieve respiratory obstruction before definitive surgery in the operation theatre.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-023-04419-4.

Keywords: Acute airway obstruction; Emergency aspiration; Plunging ranula.