Sublingual Gland Excision and Sclerotherapy for Plunging Ranula and Management of Recurrence

Background and Objectives For plunging ranula, excision of the sublingual gland has been the major treatment option, with sclerotherapy being widely used as minimal invasive treatment. We compared the outcomes of these two methods as an initial treatment for ranula and investigated the outcomes of salvage procedure in recurred patients. Subjects and Method Patients were classified into the excision group (n=35) and the sclerotherapy group (n=39) according to the type of their initial treatment. The outcomes of the initial and salvage treatment were determined as recurrence or non-recurrence at 3 months after treatment, and statistically compared between the excision and the sclerotherapy groups. Results Recurrence in the sclerothearpy group (n=20, 51.3%) showed a significantly higher rate (p<0.001) than in the excision group (n=3, 8.6%). Recurring patients who received treatment different from the initial treatment (n=7) were cured, while those who had same procedure as the initial treatment (n=11) showed recurrence of 72.7% (n=8). There was no procedure related complication among the patients. Conclusion Sublingual gland excision was more effective than ethanol sclerotherapy for the treatment of plunging ranula. In addition, sublingual gland excision was effective even after the failure of ethanol sclerotherapy.