Table of Contents
What causes damage to the glossopharyngeal nerve?
Most often the damage is from a blood vessel compressing the nerve. Other causes include aging, multiple sclerosis, and nearby tumors.
What is the main function of glossopharyngeal nerve?
As stated above, the glossopharyngeal nerve provides motor innervation to the stylopharyngeus muscle, which is responsible for elevating the pharynx and larynx.
What happens when the vagus nerve is damaged?
A damaged vagus nerve can’t send signals normally to your stomach muscles. This may cause food to remain in your stomach longer, rather than move into your small intestine to be digested. The vagus nerve and its branches can be damaged by diseases, such as diabetes, or by surgery to the stomach or small intestine.
How do you fix glossopharyngeal nerve damage?
The most effective drugs are antiseizure medicines such as carbamazepine. Antidepressants may help certain people. In severe cases, when pain is difficult to treat, surgery to take pressure off the glossopharyngeal nerve may be needed. This is called microvascular decompression.
Can the glossopharyngeal nerve be repaired?
Repair of Hypoglossal Nerve Injury If an acute injury is suspected, repair should be undertaken as soon as possible. Similar to facial nerve repairs, the ideal management involves establishment of a tension-free anastomosis (Avitia & Osborne, 2008).
How do you know if vagus nerve is damaged?
If your test indicated that you had a ventral vagal nerve dysfunction, perform the basic exercise for vagus nerve stimulation. Lie on your back on the ground. Look with your eyes to the right until you sigh, swallow, or yawn, and then repeat on the other side. You may blink during the exercise.
Which nerves affect swallowing?
The following cranial nerves are involved in swallowing:
- Trigeminal (cranial nerve V)
- Facial (cranial nerve VII)
- Glossopharyngeal (cranial nerve IX)
- Vagus (cranial nerve X)
- Hypoglossal nerve (cranial nerve XII)
Can damaged nerves heal?
Your nerves have an ability to heal and regenerate even once they have been damaged, assuming that they have been properly repaired.
Is nerve damage permanent?
But sometimes, nerve damage can be permanent, even if the cause is treated. Long-term (chronic) pain can be a major problem for some people. Numbness in the feet can lead to skin sores that do not heal.
Is GPN life threatening?
Most common cause is vascular compression of glossopharyngeal nerve. Glossopharyngeal neuralgia is life-threatening condition because it is associated with cardiac arrest, hypotension, syncope and weight loss. Treatment with carbamazepine is affected in patients with cardiovascular manifestations.
How do you test for glossopharyngeal nerve damage?
For the test, a doctor touches the back of the throat with a cotton-tipped applicator. If pain results, the doctor applies a local anesthetic to the back of the throat. If the anesthetic eliminates the pain, glossopharyngeal neuralgia is likely. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is done to check for tumors.