The present communication deals with cases of acute osteomyelitis of the jaws—both upper and lower—which occur most commonly in the first few weeks or months of life, and very rarely beyond that period, and which are characterized by: (1) pathologic manifestations associated with the osteomyelitis, which are referable to the mouth, the nose, the nasopharynx and the orbit; (2) the clinical manifestations associated with an acute infection of severe intensity; (3) sequestration and loss of the entire jaw and of the teeth that it customarily carries; (4) the subsequent deformity associated with this loss in the cases in which recovery takes place, and (5) a high mortality.
Similar clinical entities have been described under various names: "gangrenous or sequestrating inflammations of the teeth-pulp of early infancy" (Bronner); maxillary osteomyelitis of infants (Bronner); gangrenous osteogingivitis (Comby, Cozzolino and Bindi); phlegmonous pulpitis (Bronner); sequestrating inflammation of the upper jaw (van Gilse1