Hydrodissection for complete removal of a ranula.

Hydrodissection has been used in various surgical fields to facilitate excision in both routine and difficult cases. This procedure involves the injection under pressure of saline and lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine into the dissection plane. Removing a ranula without rupturing it can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Therefore, we used hydrodissection to assist us in performing these procedures. To review our experience with the treatment of ranulas, we performed a retrospective study of 38 patients who had undergone hydrodissection for ranula removal between January 1996 and December 2002 at our academic tertiary care hospital. Compared with other removal techniques, we found that hydrodissection was associated with less bleeding, fewer incidents of neural and soft-tissue damage, and a lower recurrence rate. In addition to reporting our study results, we also describe our hydrodissection technique, which is relatively simple, effective, and convenient for otolaryngologists.