Glossopharyngeal neuralgia

Glossopharyngeal neuralgia is a relatively rare disease, which is mainly caused by swallowing and talking, but these situations do not occur often, so there is no need to worry too much. Below we introduce the common symptoms of glossopharyngeal neuralgia. I hope you will take some time to learn about it in case you encounter this disease in your life but don’t know how to identify it and treat it. It will be very helpful to you.

If we understand the common symptoms of glossopharyngeal neuralgia, we can discover its existence in life at the first time and carry out drug treatment earlier. This will be of great help to us in treating glossopharyngeal neuralgia. It is recommended that everyone learn about it.

Glossopharyngeal neuralgia, also known as glossopharyngeal neuralgia, is rare in clinical practice. It refers to a recurrent burning or tingling pain that is limited to the area innervated by the sensory branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve, sometimes accompanied by the distribution area of ​​the auricular and pharyngeal branches of the vagus nerve. It is characterized by paroxysmal, severe pain in the tonsils, back of the pharynx, back of the tongue, and in the middle ear. The disease may be spontaneous, but often occurs suddenly due to swallowing, talking or touching the posterior pharyngeal area of ​​the tonsils. It can be divided into primary and secondary types: the cause of the former is unknown, and it may be due to demyelinating changes in the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves, resulting in a short circuit between the afferent impulses of the glossopharyngeal nerve and the vagus nerve, and has no obvious relationship with infection of the teeth, larynx and paranasal sinuses; the latter may be caused by compression of the cerebellopontine angle and its vicinity, tumors, inflammation, and ectopic arteries.

Symptoms and Signs: Glossopharyngeal neuralgia is a sudden onset of severe pain in the posterior 1/3 of the tongue and tonsils on one side, which rapidly radiates to the pharynx, larynx, soft palate, Eustachian tube, external auditory canal, middle ear, and the anterior and posterior areas of the external ear.

1. Triggering factors: Pain often occurs due to actions such as swallowing, talking, yawning or picking ears, and other head and neck activities can also induce pain. In severe cases, people refuse to eat in order to relieve the attacks, and are even afraid to swallow saliva, and instead lower their heads to let saliva flow out of their mouths. When examining a patient, touching the distribution area of ​​the glossopharyngeal nerve may also induce severe pain.

2. Pain area: The pain is mostly limited to one side of the posterior pharyngeal wall, tongue root, tonsil area and external auditory canal. Although each patient is different, they all fall within the above range.

3. The nature of the pain is similar to trigeminal neuralgia, presenting as paroxysmal tingling, knife-like severe pain or burning pain. The duration of the attack varies from a few seconds to a few minutes, and the pain can be completely relieved during the intervals between attacks. Some patients experience mild pain.

4. "Trigger points" are mostly located in the tonsils, soft palate, posterior pharyngeal wall or external auditory canal, which can cause pain once touched. The "trigger point" can be relieved after cocaine anesthesia.

5. Other symptoms: Some patients may experience bradycardia, cardiac arrest, hypotension, syncope and convulsions during pain attacks. Bradycardia or cardiac arrest is caused by overexcitation of the sinus nerve (a branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve) that innervates the carotid sinus, which causes the vagus nerve to become overactive. Some authors also speculate that it may be related to the high sensitivity of the vagus nerve itself and the formation of false apophysis at the proximal end of the glossopharyngeal nerve. Syncope and convulsions are caused by bradycardia, cardiac arrest causing a drop in blood pressure and severe cerebral ischemia and hypoxia.

From the article, we can learn about many common symptoms of glossopharyngeal neuralgia. As long as we understand the causes of these symptoms, it will be relatively easy to avoid the occurrence of the disease in our lives. Therefore, in our daily lives, we all need to develop good reading habits and learn more about articles on treating diseases, especially for those friends who are about to become mothers.