Saturday, November 27, 2010

Eagle's Syndrome

A typical Facial Neuralgia, Facial Causalgia or Atypical Facial Pain.






Vague Deep Poorly localized pain in the region supplied by 5th cranial nerve and second & third cervical nerves. the nerve lacks a trigger Zone and its constant for weeks or even months. Etiology: Damage to the trigeminal nerves or Basal skull fracture.

Another such case is seen in the Eagle’s Syndrome ,this also causes orofacial pain. less common in INDIA though. This is caused by the elongation of the styloid process or the ossification of the stylo-hyoid ligament causing dysphagia , sore throat, otalgia , glossodynia ,headache ,vague orofacial pain or pain along the distribution of the internal and external carotid artery. Most common is the pharyngeal pain. Carotid Artery Syndrome is caused by the sliding of the elongated styloid process or ossified stylo-hyoid ligaments with the carotid artery.



Treatment: Medical treatment is less satisfactory. Surgical measures might be the only relief in such cases.



Case study: Today a female patients of 45 years of age had a come to the hospital with a history of pain which she thought was due to her oral conditions. The pain was continuous and there was no effect of medications. The pain radiated outward from the ear and reduced mouth opening and movement of her head due to severe pain. OPG revealed that she was too a case of Eagle’s syndrome.