LEMIERRE'S SYNDROME: A REVIEW

Abstract

Lemierre's syndrome is a rare and less commonly occurring clinical condition that generally relates to the septic thrombophlebitis of the Internal Jugular vein. Mostly the clinicians have forgotten about this due to less incidence, the most common bacteria causing infection are and Streptococci followed by styaphylococci and Klebsiella [1] . The major proportion of cases that come to light are due to deep neck space infections that ultimately leads to thrombotic involvement of IJV, accounts for for majority of the cases. The other causes include complications of chronic suppurative otitis media and thrombosis occurring in deep veins. Since the Internal Jugular Vein is involved the infection can also undergo hematogenous spread. The infection generally spreads to Spleen, Liver, Kidney, Heart and Brain. [3][4] Lemierre's syndrome can be diagnosed on the basis of clinical symptoms, multitude of blood series and Imaging. Since it is an infectious condition the treatment involves systemic antibiotic therapy and early administration of broad spectrum antibiotics in high dose become necessary for prevention of complications and systemic spread of infection. [3][4] We are presenting a case series of 5 cases over a period of six years from November 2015 to November 2021.