A Case Against Sublingual Gland Removal as Primary Treatment of Ranulas

Abstract

Simple marsupialization or unroofing, the oldest and most widely reported method of surgical management of oral ranula, has fallen into disfavor primarily because of the excessive number of recurrences (approximately 60% to 90%). As a consequence, Catone el al1 and Bridger et al2 recommended that the primary treatment of all ranulas, regardless of size, should be sublingual gland excision. At times, this recommendation is more severe than appropriate (Fig 1).