Hi everyone,
I want to share all the articles and information I found on Traumatic Eagle Syndrome after fracture of the styloid process. To demonstrate why this condition is so uncommon and frequently overlooked: Until 1990, there have only been eight publications about Traumatic Eagle Syndrome.
When your styloid process is fractured after a trauma (that might be whiplash, general neck trauma, apparently even coughing, yawning or laughing), it can cause the same symptoms “common” Eagle patients experience - even though the process isn’t elongated, in a bad angle or your stylohyoid ligament is calcified.
In most cases, styloid process fractures occur after injury to the mandible and can be treated conservatively as the styloid process is fractured, but remains in a spot where it doesn’t interfere with vital structures. However, since the fragment of the styloid process isn’t “attached” to your skull anymore, it is more prone to get dislocated, e.g. after coughing, yawning, laughing (every body movement where the ligaments/muscles attached to the styloid process are strained, basically). That’s when the pain starts.
Here’s the literature I found on (Post-)Traumatic Eagle Syndrome aka Fracture of the Styloid Process:
Traumatic Eagle Syndrome aka Fractured Styloid Process.pdf (475.5 KB)
Traumatic Eagle’s Syndrome 2.pdf (533.7 KB)
Painful Dysphagia Due To Fracture of Styloid Process.pdf (1.5 MB)
Stylo-Mandibular Complex.pdf (1.1 MB)
Coexistence TMJ and Fractured Styloid Process.pdf (199.2 KB)
Surgical Management of Fractured Styloid Process.pdf (4.6 MB)
Fractures Styloid Process Case Report and Review of Literature.pdf (697.8 KB)
Iraqi Study.pdf (113.9 KB)
If you had any kind of neck trauma, you’re searching for a solution for your pain and you neither have elongated styloid processes nor calcified stylohyoid ligaments - take the time to read through those reports. I could relate to almost all the symptoms these patients experienced and their history and it helped me massively to get accepted by the doctors in my local clinic. “Traumatic Eagle Syndrome is rarely reported, probably because of the failure to diagnose this condition.”
Best,
Michael
