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Swelling in the face - causes and symptoms
contents
- The angioedema
- How does angioedema develop??
- symptoms
- Angioedema from intolerance
- diagnosis
- treatment
- Other causes of facial swelling
- The "big cheek"
- lip swelling
- Home remedy for facial swelling
The angioedema
Those affected hit it like lightning: they just sat there unsuspectingly at breakfast, then they look in the mirror, and a monster looks at them. The lips look like Botox overdoses, cheeks bloated like a croaking frog, and eyes open like a hooligan with a mass brawl behind him.
Causes and therapies for facial swelling. Image: Nagel's point of view - fotolia In fact, the face swells in response to violence, beatings, kicks or unwanted contact with the curb.
However, it is hardly known that the face takes on the form of an accidental plastic surgery, even with completely different stimuli: medications, allergies to food, infections, cold or shock can trigger the swelling exactly the same way: water collects in the vessels and tightens the skin.
It's not just an aesthetic problem - though it's bad enough walking around with a disfigured face.
If someone suddenly has angioedema on their faces, they should go to a hospital immediately. If the tissue around the pharynx, larynx and tongue swells, those affected can die. The swelling then closes the respiratory tract, and death threatens by suffocation.
How does angioedema develop??
The facial skin swells as water accumulates in the deeper tissue. The messenger substances make the blood vessels of the hypodermis porous, and water from the veins flows in. The skin does not redden because the swelling is below the surface. For this she adopts, especially on the lips, mucous membranes and eyes, grotesquely large form.
The swelling recedes on its own, but it can always come back if the cause has not been eliminated.
First, histamine is the cause. We then talk about histamine-mediated angioedema, which includes allergic angioedema as well as angioedema in response to certain medications.
Second, there are people who have a genetic C1-inhibitor deficiency. So they lack a protein in the blood, which strengthens the body's defense. Either the sufferer's body does not produce enough of the C1 inhibitor, or the substance is defective or the body can not handle the inhibitor.
An angioedema is not a disease of its own, but a symptom of a basic disease, usually an effect of hives: The body's own messenger substance histamine from the mast cells mediated the swelling.
Acute hives have 20% of all people at least once in their lives. On the other hand, only one in 100,000 suffer from genetically-induced angioedema.
symptoms
Angioedema is a swelling that is deep in the skin and painfully tightens the epidermis but does not itch.
In the throat and larynx, this swelling causes shortness of breath.
Other symptoms correspond to the underlying disease:
Histamine medications Angioedema almost always affects the face, especially the lips and eyes.
If such an angioedema develops on the tongue and larynx, it is manifested by:
- hoarseness
- difficulties swallowing
- deep voice
- Whistling the breath
- acute respiratory distress
Angioedema from intolerance
ACE inhibitors help against hypertension and heart failure. 0.1 to 2% of patients develop angioedema because they can not tolerate the medication. As with other induced edema, discomfort is dangerous if it spreads through the larynx.
Unfortunately, months can pass before those affected suffer from angioedema, and neither they nor the doctor can easily overlook the link to the ACE inhibitors.
Probably the protein bradykinin is responsible. The triggers are enalapril, ramipril and lisinopril.
Those affected should talk to their doctor about whether they have suffered from angioedema in the past, which is the greatest known risk that water from intolerance accumulates.
diagnosis
There are many triggers for facial swelling, and the doctor first asks about external factors: did the edema occur after the patient ingested a particular food? Then the person affected should avoid it.
An ice cube test proves whether the edema is caused by cold.
If it is a hereditary angioedema is an indication that the problem occurred several times in the family.
Age also plays a role, as hereditary angioedema usually occurs for the first time during puberty. Markus Magerl of the Charité says: "If angioedema without wheals suddenly occurs in an elderly person, it is always necessary to think about an acquired disease."
The doctor also asks what medication the patient takes and investigates whether there are diseases in the immune system.
treatment
Histamine-mediated angioedema usually regresses on its own. Eyes and lips relieve the doctor by injecting antihistamines or cortisone. In edema of the larynx, medicine must act immediately: adrenaline spray and oxygen masks repair the acute respiratory distress. Infusions with cortisone, adrenaline and antihistamines push back the swelling. In an emergency, only artificial respiration can help.
Anyone who has had an angioedema on their face or even in their throats should always have an emergency set at hand and avoid triggers if they are known.
Other causes of facial swelling
Angioedema is characterized by pain and soreness but not itching and reddening of the skin. In eczema on the face, triggered by a contact allergy or toxins, the other looks: Here, the skin swells and reddened.
With edema as a result of chronic alcohol abuse, the structure of the skin changes, it turns red, and the pores widen.
In many other puffiness on the face, the skin does not redden: examples include facial edema in kidney disease and kidney weakness such as hypothyroidism.
Also hunger edema and edema after surgery usually does not redden.
The "big cheek"
When a single cheek swells, it is usually not due to angioedema, but to infections. Inflammation of the teeth and gums is often the cause, for example, acute periodontitis, rooting with fistulas, dry blowing of a drilled root canal, or breakthrough of a wisdom tooth.
Those affected usually know the causes here because they suffer from severe toothache.
Treatment here means visiting a dentist who removes the avital tooth, fills the hole or takes the fistula out, or administers antibiotics that stop the inflammation.
It can also be an inflammation of the parotid gland or an abscess in the subcutaneous tissue.
An abscess arises, for example, from an injury, for example, when a bone splinter drills into the skin of the pharynx and gets stuck there. The wound inflames, festers, and the infection swells. Such an abscess is associated with pain, so that those affected know about the cause.
Beware of partial facial paralysis. People with paralysis are in constant danger of developing a so-called decubitus ulcer. This ulcer occurs when the affected area of skin is too long in one place.
Normally our nerves signal us "the pressure is too great, turn around". But if you do not feel these nerves anymore, the same processes still happen in the body - the pressure point is no longer supplied with blood and dies off.
Such a wound drills deep into the skin, often to the bone and is very difficult to heal. The infection causes toxins to enter the organism, which is why people have to cleanse the wound constantly.
lip swelling
A lip swelling may be due to herpes simplex labialis and then comes along with painful small blisters that itch.
Swollen lips as a symptom. Picture: SENTELLO-fotolia The cause may also be a lip burn, an inflamed wound on the lip, a deep pimple or ingrown whiskers. In the worst case, it is a lip cancer in the development phase.
Home remedy for facial swelling
Swelling in the face can be alleviated by home remedies. Doctors recommend cooling compresses in the morning, which can be soaked with herbal or black tea.
In case of a possible allergy or a sensitive reaction to external stimuli such as cold, it is important to avoid these triggers. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)