Chronic Superficial Glossitis

Chronic Glossitis.

Chronic glossitis, like acute glossitis, may be superficial or parenchymatous.

Superficial chronic glossitis is usually confined to the papillæ of the tongue, territories of which, so to speak, are mapped out on the surface of the tongue, separated by furrows reaching to the basement mucous membrane. In pronounced cases the dividing furrows are quite deep, giving the organ a mamelonnated appearance, and they penetrate into the mucous membrane (dissecting glossitis, Wunderlich), which becomes subjected to great irritation by the retention of articles of food in the fissures. Demarquay has recorded a case of this kind in which, to relieve the intense sufferings with which the patient had been plagued for a number of years, he had been forced to amputate the anterior half of the organ—an operation which succeeded thoroughly.

Loc. cit., p. 142.

In another group of cases the surface of the swollen tongue is mapped out in small ovoid patches, smooth, red, and glossy, from which the papillæ have become separated without regeneration. Sometimes chronic glossitis presents as an aphthous inflammation. Sometimes superficial ulcers occur upon the dorsum of the tongue, irritable, indolent, and indurated.

ETIOLOGY.—Chronic superficial glossitis is in rare instances a sequel of the acute form of the disease. Usually, however, it is encountered as a chronic affection from the outset, so to speak, generally as a result of long-continued irritation in connection with dyspepsia and other gastric and gastro-intestinal disorders. It is frequently encountered in subjects of chronic alcoholism.

The superficial ulcerations often occur at the sides of the organ, usually in some of the depressions formed by the contact of the teeth.

SYMPTOMATOLOGY.—The symptoms are those due to a consciousness that the tongue is too large, with occasional pain in taking acid and succulent food.

PATHOLOGY.—The pathology does not differ from that of chronic inflammations elsewhere. The apparent obliteration of the papillæ in some cases is due to a filling up of the intervening furrows by permanent deposit of new-formed cells. The excoriations and superficial ulcerations are most frequently due to disturbance of nutrition by pressure.

DIAGNOSIS.—The affection may be confounded with syphilitic disease of the tongue or with papillary epithelioma, but the history of the case, the resistance to antisyphilitic treatment, and the negative results from microscopic examination of fragments of tissue removed for the purpose, serve to establish the diagnosis in cases of doubt. It must not be forgotten, however, that many cases of epithelioma begin in chronic glossitis, non-specific as well as syphilitic.

PROGNOSIS.—Though not threatening to life, the prognosis of the disease itself is bad. It resists treatment, being, in fact, a complication of some obstinate or intractable gastric or gastro-intestinal disorder, or an evidence of constitutional dyscrasia. Cure may be expected in recent cases, following cure of the dyspepsia or other malady upon which the chronic glossitis may be dependent.

TREATMENT.—Care to cleanse the tongue by washes, douches, or wet cloths after each meal, in order to remove particles of food which may have become impacted in the anfractuosities of the organ, is important in order to avoid additional sources of irritation.

Astringents and caustics of various kinds have been extensively employed, carefully applied to the floors of the fissures, but it is very rarely that any benefit ensues. Demarquay reports good results in one case of dissecting papillary glossitis from biweekly applications of equal parts of chromic acid and water. Butlin reports good results from chromic acid (1:10).

Loc. cit., p. 143.

Careful attention to the gastro-intestinal functions, and a thorough change of diet, such as the adoption of the milk cure and the like, with due attention to bathing and outdoor exercise, comprise the most rational method of constitutional treatment. Should the secretions of the mouth give an acid reaction with litmus-paper, alkalies are strongly indicated, topically and systemically. Avoidance of alcohol in all forms is often absolutely essential.