Abstract
This report deals with a case of dysphagia induced by the irradiation of a malignant lymphoma of the neck. The patient was a 55-year-old male with dysphagia who had undergone irradiation to the neck for a malignant lymphoma ten years previously. The dysphagia that had gradually worsened in ten years made him enable to eat and drink orally. He often contracted by pneumonia. On first examination, atrophic changes were observed in the soft palates, and the epiglottis, and the improvement of the tongue was bilaterally impaired. These findings were diagnosed as the causes of the dysphagia. A barium study showed that the movement of the tongue and the pharynx were impaired. The barium was aspirated. A plain X-ray film of the mandible showed ostitis. The impairment of the tongue movement was due to bilateral hypopharyngeal nerve palsies induced by the irradiation. Laryngeal suspension and cricopharyngeal myotomy were not suitable because they could have aggravated the radiation necrosis of the thyroid cartilage which will be expected in the future. A total laryngectomy, which sacrifies the phonation, was out of the question, because the patient's dysarthria was not so hard to understand. He was instructed in the self-insertion of a feeding tube to get enough nutrition, the physical therapy of the lung with the aid of his wife to prevent aspiration pneumonia. The loss of phonation lowers the QOL of such patients. In the cases with dysphagia which do not recover with surgical treatments, rehabilitation should mainly stress the conservation of phonation and the prevention of pneumonia to maintain the higher QOL of patients.
