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RICHARD W. WAGUESPACK, MD
Birmingham, Ala

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1991;117(10):1084.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A discussion of the surgical anatomy of the pharyngeal plexus and its role in the development of postlaryngectomy speech was presented at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Laryngological Association, Waikaloa, Hawaii. Mark I. Singer, MD, San Francisco, Calif, and Curt E. Shinabarger, MD, Indianapolis, Ind, opened their presentation by noting the dependence of successful esophageal and tracheoesophageal speech on effective reduction of pharyngeal constrictor pressure. Traditionally, this has been accomplished with myotomy, which carries with it a clinically significant likelihood of wound breakdown or fistula development.

The study population consisted of the following three groups of 10 patients each: myotomy only, cricopharyngeal myotomy with pharyngeal plexus neurectomy, and neurectomy only. After describing the surgical procedure, Dr Singer discussed his findings. Analysis, such as the observation of prolonged swallowing transit times, indicated that the cricopharyngeus is not relaxed by plexus neurectomy alone. The authors postulate that its innervation may . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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