Symptomatic Elongated Styloid

Abstract

To the Editor . — I have read, with a good bit of interest, a case report describing a surgical technique for Symptomatic Elongated Styloid in your esteemed journal ( Arch Otolaryngol 96:84-85, 1972). What attracted my attention most was rather an unusual feature described by the author, Dr. Richard L. Mabry, Dallas, that palatal paralysis resulted after avulsion of the glossopharyngeal nerve. The anatomical structure of soft palate and the nature of its motor supply does not suggest such a thing occurring unless the author could prove the presence of some abnormal fibers of the glossopharyngeal nerve playing active role in the motor function of the soft palate. Even through the pharyngeal plexus the supply from this nerve is only sensory. Except for a transitory and partial sensory impairment on the palate, I do not think palatal palsy or paralysis could occur because, to the best of my knowledge, glossopharyngeal nerve