Muscular Pathology of the Neuromuscular Diseases Causing Dysphagia and Dysphonia.

An unusual cause of dysphagia and dysphonia.

The glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory cranial nerves pass through the jugular foramen and may be involved by transforaminal tumors.1,2 Weakness of the muscles supplied by these cranial nerves may simulate the bulbar variant of ALS or myasthenia gravis. Here we report a 94-year-old woman with a schwannoma of the left jugular foramen (figure, A, B, C, D) who presented with a 4-year history o...

The diagnosis and management of neuromuscular diseases causing respiratory failure.

Anterior Cervical Osteophytes Causing Dysphagia and Paradoxical Vocal Cord Motion Leading to Dyspnea and Dysphonia

Anterior cervical osteophytes are common and usually asymptomatic in elderly people. Due to mechanical compressions, inflammations, and tissues swelling of osteophytes, patients may be presented with multiple complications, such as dysphagia, dysphonia, dyspnea, and pulmonary aspiration. Paradoxical vocal cord motion is an uncommon disease characterized by vocal cord adductions during inspirati...

Pharyngeal cervical neurinoma: dysphonia and dysphagia.

More advanced neuromas originate from the cranial and spinal nerve roots, and they manifest symptoms as slow and progressive spine compression, and partial or total surgical removal is indicated. Cranial pairs V, VII, IX, X, XI and XII act directly on speech production and swallowing and, when involved, may interfere in the patient’s life quality, especially the social, nutritional and pulmonar...

Brainstem pathology in spasmodic dysphonia.

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a primary focal dystonia of unknown pathophysiology, characterized by involuntary spasms in the laryngeal muscles during speech production. We examined two rare cases of postmortem brainstem tissue from SD patients compared to four controls. In the SD patients, small clusters of inflammation were found in the reticular formation surrounding solitary tract, spinal tri...