Headaches, toothaches, sore throats, are common in life, and if you continue to repeat them, you should be vigilant. Recently, Nanjing Brain Hospital received a patient, for three years the throat has been as painful as a knife cut, even eating and drinking has become a problem, traveling around for medical treatment, has not seen any improvement. It was not until the final diagnosis that the patient was originally suffering from a rare neurological disease.
The patient said: "Eating, drinking, and spitting in the throat are painful. It hurt so much, like swallowing a blade, and I couldn't sleep all night in the night, for three or four years. The major hospitals in the family have looked at it, looked at the ear, nose and throat department, looked at the pain department, but they have not found out, and they have taken a lot of medicines that are useless. ”
【Pain for three or four years Low incidence of glossopharyngeal neuralgia is easy to miss diagnosis】
Because of extreme pain, patients develop depression, anxiety, and their lives are seriously affected. Recently, she came to Nanjing Brain Hospital for treatment, and the doctor preliminarily judged that the patient may have a rare neurological disease: glossopharyngeal neuralgia. Subsequent MRI examination confirmed the diagnosis.
Luo Zhengxiang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery of Nanjing Brain Hospital, said: "The glossopharyngeal nerve is a nerve in our head, the main tube pharyngeal wall, tonsils, the bottom of the tongue root, the bottom of the ear, the glossopharyngeal nerve is compressed by the blood vessels in the position of the brainstem, and the blood vessels fluctuate every time, stimulating the nerve, causing the nerve to abnormally release bioelectricity, producing electric shock-like, knife-like, needle-like pain, which can be painful several times, dozens of times, hundreds of times a day. ”
According to doctors, the annual incidence of glossopharyngeal neuralgia is not high, about 0.2 to 0.7 per 100,000, so it is easy to be misdiagnosed and missed. Currently, glossopharyngeal neuralgia can be relieved by surgical treatment.
Dr. Luo Zhengxiang said: "Just cut a 6 cm long opening behind the ear, find the glossopharyngeal nerve through the gap in the brain tissue, find the 'responsible' blood vessel that compresses the glossopharyngeal nerve, separate the nerve and the blood vessel, and do not produce compression." ”
After the operation, the patient said that it was no longer painful and that he could now fall asleep.
[Persistent headache toothache sore throat may be a nerve problem]
Doctors caution that if there is a persistent and unresponsive sore throat, neurosurgery should be considered to exclude glossopharyngeal neuralgia. In addition, the occurrence of persistent unassued headaches and toothaches should also be noted, which may also be neuralgia: "For example, the upper alveolar and lower alveoli are painful when touched, and sometimes they are misdiagnosed as toothache, and after the teeth are extracted, there is no relief for nerve pain." The main reason is that the trigeminal nerve is compressed by blood vessels, which must be distinguished from the toothache examination of the department of stomatology. ”
(Reporting by Wang Leping and Guo Kaifeng, reporters of Jiangsu Radio and Television General Station Rong Media News Center)
(The copyright of this article belongs to Jiangsu Provincial Radio and Television Station, please indicate the source when reprinting)