[Frequency and causes of life-threatening forms and courses of pyogenic soft-part infections in the maxillocervicofacial regions of 3,314 patients (author's transl)].

The morbidity of life-threatening inflammatory diseases is determined from examinations of 3,314 inpatients with pyogenic soft-part infections in the maxillocervico-facial region. Abnormally severe and life-threatening disease pictures must be expected in about 5 and 15 per cent of the cases, with the lethality being in the order of 0.2 per cent. The etiological factors responsible for the development of abnormal forms of disease, which were determined from a review of the relevant literature, were confirmed by the results obtained for the patients examined in this investigation. Errors in diagnosis and therapy account for a high percentage of the medical failures reported. Retrospectively, numerous clinical pictures have become modified due obviously to the increasing use in dental practice of antibiotic substances.