I’ve noticed that a few of you have had surgery and some of you have incisions in the front area of your neck. My surgeon said the incisions are going to be on the side of my neck back close to my ear. I didn’t know that there was more than one area in which incisions are made. Can someone give me more information about this? Thank you!
It does seem to vary alot between different surgeons! Mine was right behind the ear, then coming down only a little way to my neck, only an inch. It’s just how different surgeons work. As long as the important questions are answered- like will they remove as much as possible of the styloid process, & smooth off what’s left, that if any of the stylohyoid ligament is calcified then that is removed, & do they monitor nerves?
Have you got a date for surgery? & who are you having surgery with?
Best wishes!
Hi Jules!
They do monitor nerves during the whole surgery. My surgery is scheduled on June 10th. My neurosurgeon, Dr. Jian and an neurotologist, Dr. Balough are performing the surgery together. My surgeons are from Kaiser in Sacramento, CA. They are removing both styloids as they are both elongated and calcified. My right side is worse than my left. My right side is causing the internal jugular vein compression, and there are cranial nerves that are being compressed, too.
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Good to know what their strategy is. Hopefully they’ll also be paying attention to your stylohyoid ligaments. Sure don’t want those staying in if they’re calcified, too.
Hoping for a fantastic outcome for you!
Both sides in the same op? So you’ll get it over & done with in one go?
Have you read up past discussions on what to expect post-op? There’s lots of info & suggestions to prepare you if you haven’t! Be prepared for swelling, so you’ll need to sleep part upright, & most people find ice packs helpful. Not long to wait!
Mine started about 1" below the ear and down and towards the throat at an angle and is 2 1/4" - he followed a neck wrinkle pretty well 
. I think it depends on whether surgeon taking the styloid off at the cranium, the angle of the calcifications, what they encounter (I had lymph nodes that had to be resected) and what nerves they have to move to get to it. My calcified ligaments were pretty deep into the neck. That combined with the resection and decompression of glossaphygeal nerve made it a longer incision. My understanding is that men generally get larger incisions as their necks can be thicker. Good luck with your surgery!!! Nice to have 2 docs at the surgery. With all that compression, you should feel better after all is said and done.
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I will be double-check exactly what is coming out when I talk to my doctors again. You guys are such a wealth of knowledge and information. Thank you!
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YES! Make sure you know what’s coming out before surgery. We’ve recently had a member who found out her surgeon only removed her styloid processes when she also had calcification on her stylo-hyoid ligaments. She’s back to having ES symptoms & finding someone to remove the ligaments is proving challenging for her.
Hi @JoyS how was your surgery ?
This discussion was quite a while ago, so you may not get an answer…
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How long you had to wait for surgery after appointment. And how are you doing now ? Thank you
@bizzaresyndrome - @JoyS hasn’t posted on our forum in several years so it’s possible she isn’t receiving your messages. Just wanted to let you know.
Hi how are you feeling now ?