2021 Volume 72 Issue 3 Pages 124-131
This report describes the treatment results of 14 patients with dysphagia after resection of primary brain tumor. All patients required a feeding tube before treatment of dysphagia. Eight patients had limb paralysis and/or ataxia. We performed physical therapy and/or operation for dysphagia on all patients, operating on those who could not achieve successful results by physical therapy. The operations were cricopharyngeal myotomy and laryngeal suspension, thyroplasty type 1, arytenoid adduction, oral corner retraction and pharyngeal reefing.
One of the 14 patients presented with postoperative meningioma in the temporal lobe, and the other 13 had infratentorial tumors. One of the 13 showed a tumor with unclear pathological diagnosis, while the other 12 patients with infratentorial tumors consisted of 3 meningiomas and 3 neurinomas in the CP angle, 2 hemangioblastomas in the medulla, 2 hemangioblastomas in the cerebellum, and 2 ependymomas in the fourth ventricle. Six of the 14 were low frequency tumors in the infratentorial region, such as hemangioblastoma and ependymoma.
We performed physical therapy on all patients, but 10 were unable to take the therapy orally. One of the 10 was inoperable because of poor condition, and another did not want the operation. The remaining 8 of the 10 underwent surgical therapy. Seven of the 8 operated became able to take the therapy orally. One patient, who suffered from hemiplegia, bilateral hearing disturbance, facial hyposensitivity and unilateral facial palsy after resection of CP angle meningioma, was unable to take the therapy orally even after surgical treatment.
