Is Hypoglossal Nerve Palsy Caused by Craniocervical Junction Degenerative Disease an Underrecognized Entity?

Craniocervical Junction Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Causing Hypoglossal Nerve Palsy

This case report describes an 80-year-old patient’s right-sided hemicranial headache, right-sided tongue hemiatrophy with fasciculations and deviation, right side of the tongue on protrusion, and mild dysarthria.

Something Got Your Tongue? A Unique Cause of Hypoglossal Nerve Palsy

Introduction

The authors report a rare cause of isolated hypoglossal nerve palsy caused by a high cervical osteophyte. This case increases clinical knowledge of an underreported condition and teaches the clinician radiologic pearls in making the diagnosis. To their knowledge, this is the first case report showing surgical remediation of this condition. Symptoms and Clinical Findings. A 73-year-old female presented with several months of occipital headache, progressive dysarthria, dysphagia, and tongue deviation to the right. Her neurologic exam was significant for atrophy of the right hemitongue with tongue fasciculations. On protrusion, her tongue deviated rightward. Diagnosis and Therapeutic Intervention. Careful review of her initial head computed tomography (CT) imaging revealed that a high cervical osteophyte caused unilateral, isolated hypoglossal nerve palsy. Neurosurgery performed a right, far lateral approach for decompression of this osteophyte and over the ensuing months her symptoms improved.

Conclusion

High cervical osteophyte is an underrecognized cause of isolated hypoglossal nerve palsy. The imaging investigation should be systematic and focus on the skull base with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or CT. This is a rare occasion when high resolution CT of the skull base can actually be the more helpful imaging modality. As shown in this case, an osteoarthritic cause can be surgically ameliorated.

Imaging Features of isolated hypoglossal nerve palsy

The hypoglossal nerve gives motor innervation to the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the tongue. Pathology of this nerve affects the balanced action of the genioglossus muscle causing tongue deviation toward the weak side. Clinically, hypoglossal nerve palsy manifests with difficulty chewing, swallowing and with dysarthric speech herein, we review the anatomy of the hypoglossal nerve as well as common and infrequent lesions that can affect this nerve along its course.

Hypoglossal Nerve Palsy as a Cause of Severe Dysphagia along with the Oropharyngeal Stenosis due to Occipitocervical Kyphosis

Hypoglossal nerve palsy (HNP) is a potential cause of dysphagia. A 66-year-old man presented to our hospital with dysphagia and neck pain. One year prior to his first visit, he had been diagnosed with upper cervical tuberculosis and had undergone posterior C1-2 fixation. The physical examination led to the diagnosis of dysphagia with HNP, and he had severe weight loss. Radiographic examination revealed that the O-C kyphosis had been exacerbated and that the deformity was likely the primary cause of HNP. To restore the swallowing function, O-C fusion surgery was performed. Postoperatively, the patient showed immediate improvement of dysphagia with gradual recovery of hypoglossal nerve function. In the last follow-up evaluation, swallowing function was confirmed with no signs of HNP. Our results indicate that HNP could be more prevalent in cases with severe cervical kyphosis, being underdiagnosed due to the more apparent signs of the oropharyngeal narrowing.