TONGUE NECROSIS AS A COMPLICATION OF TEMPORAL ARTERITIS

Tongue necrosis is a rare complication in giant cell arteritis, an ent ity in which both temporal arteritis and rheumatic polymyalgia may be included as two different manifestations of the same pathologic proces s. The case of a 79-year-old patient who had tongue necrosis 3 hours a fter ingestion of 2 mg of ergotamine tartrate is presented. This compl ication was the basis for the diagnosis of temporal arteritis. We revi ewed possible clinical manifestations of temporal arteritis and cases of tongue necrosis in the world literature. The possible existence of triggering factors that seemed to be present in 11 of the published ca ses was analyzed. In seven of these cases ingestion of ergotamine deri vates had taken place.