Photo: UT Health School of Dentistry / Courtesy
HOUSTON – Doctors in Houston are trying to find the reason why some people who have been hospitalized with COVID – 19 developed a very rare condition that causes their tongue to become massively enlarged.
The condition is called macroglossia and makes it impossible for patients who suffer from it to eat or speak.
Dr. James Melville with the UT Health School of Dentistry has become a specialist who treats the aforementioned condition. Melville has also already performed several surgeries that allowed patients to regain normal use of their tongues.
The first Macroglossia cases were reported last year during the months of the fall season.
Dr. Melville said that the United States reported two cases during the fall of 2020, but has since learned of seven more cases.
The doctor pointed out that the nine patients were intubated in the hospital. Of the nine, eight are African American people. All were hospitalized with COVID – 19 before developing macroglossia.
Melville commented that patients who managed to survive COVID – 19 developed inflammatory cells in the tissue of their tongues, which which indicates that some of the virus makes some people more prone to the rare condition.
“I think the condition has a lot to do with where the virus concentrates and the body’s immune system response to the virus,” said Melville.
The doctor conducts a study to determine if there is something common in the genes of patients who have suffered the condition.
If the doctors They can’t find the answer, at least they want to discover alternatives to prevent it.
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