Attached is a picture of my fragmented calcified Styloid processes. Back in February this year i had surgery to reduce them. The surgery was a success and I felt great for a while. About a month or two back i felt a sharp stinging in my neck and heard a loud POP sound. It was so loud I could hear it through my Throat and out of my mouth. Since then I have been having strange symptoms such as: Tingling numbness of hands legs and feet, Facial swelling, Eye pain and redness, Double/ghost vision, Fatigue and tiredness, Stomach pain diarrhea, daily headaches, mental fogginess, panic attacks every other day, and Sleep paralysis and sleep Adrenalin rushes. Anyway after dozes of Dr. Vists many MRI,CT. I ended up back to the source of it all bone fragments reeking havoc once again! I will see the ENT again soon with a game plan on what we are going to do and let yall know.
more pics... attached
209-SyloidFragmentation5b.JPG (20.4 KB) 210-SyloidFragmentation3b.JPG (14.4 KB)
Oh my god. I just had surgery Monday where they took out 2 cm and the surgeon acted like that’s the end of issues for that side. This happened less than a year later for you?? How can the other pics be viewed? The left bone just broke apart by itself???
Yes it just broke with simple movement! I had my surgery in Feb this year and also removed 2cm on each side. I thought it was over as my neck pain and other symptoms were gone. Then months ago it got worse. The other pictures I attached are simple JPGS you can view them within your browsers ( i and view them with google chrome) If you feel any other neck discomfort I would request a second CT w/ contrast scan and demand a CD copy just as a follow up precaution. It's possible that you may never experience what I am going through I would just opt to get them fully removed if you have the initial option.
mt83, you did a great service by posting this. I now am of the firm belief that you need to get as much taken out as possible in the first surgery. I'm aware of only a couple doctors who seem to understand this. I didn't have anything as dramatic as your situation, but I've been in misery for several years trying to get the rest of my left styloid taken out.
I hope you can get this taken care of. Good luck and please keep us posted on how you're doing.
I had my entire styloid removed- 4.5 cm. I have these small bits as well. Spoke to surgeon and they are vascular clips, not bone fragments.I only have about 4-5 of the clips. They are titanium so they have the same signal as bone or metal.
Thanks for posting this, I am in similar situation, all the same symptoms as you, had a reduction not long ago
guys i might be wrong here i took this image to a local ENT he said they could be medical braids ..
Roger that kitty ill take them down to reduce scare factor- my fault.
Kitty9309 said:
I had my entire styloid removed- 4.5 cm. I have these small bits as well. Spoke to surgeon and they are vascular clips, not bone fragments.I only have about 4-5 of the clips. They are titanium so they have the same signal as bone or metal.
I wonder if we could find out the symptoms post initial styloidectomy from those that initially had styloidectomy and later needed revision for more complete resection plus digatstric, c1 shave, etc. I had bilateral styloidectomy and it resolved some symptoms like sore throat, dysphagia, ear pain, most of the swallowing issues, but didn’t resolve the brain fog, tinnitus, lightheadedness and the usual symptoms associated with IJV compression. Here is a link to the guy on this forum that posted his result before and after on youtube. It was not super easy to find so I am reposting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rzm4QRDrq0 .
@jobby99 - This discussion is from 2014 so you’re not likely to get a response from anyone. That is the year that both @Jules & I joined this forum.
I had a two styloidectomies & 9 years later had to have a revision on the left w/ IJV decompression, but my symptoms weren’t typical for IJV compression, however, the surgery did help me over all.
I know you’ve looked into further surgery to decompress your IJVs more completely. Are you making headway? Barry (Barrootz on our forum) whose video link you posted had his surgeries done by Dr. Costantino in case you didn’t know.
Constantino just cancelled on me for unknown reason about a week away. This tells me that he finally reviewed my images and doesn’t think he can help. I was told to expect a callback, but am saavy enough to know that might just be a nice way of telling me that the doctor doesn’t want to treat me. I had a feeling based on the way his secretary handled the phone call that this could happen. I may just go directly to Barrow Institute, since I am not making any progress locally with a neurosurgeon who used to work there and now is at Cleveland Clinic. I think the main issue is “styloidectomy” needs to be removed as keyword for the majority of surgeons who leave more than 1 mm behind, because clearly different ENT remove differing amounts of the styloid. It should be called a “styloid reduction” and/or “calcified ligament removal” if that is the expected outcome vs a styloidectomy. Maybe, patients would wait longer for more complex surgery with experienced surgeons if they knew what they ultimately were agreeing to have done. And would love to read research on how the geometry of the styloid changes surgical approach, but I think this forum is the only place to find much discussion on the topic.
@jobby99 - Have you considered contacting Dr. Liu? He’s newer to our Doctors List, but very competent with ES & IJV decompression surgeries.
•Dr. James K. Liu, 200 S. Orange Ave, Ste. 265, Livingston NJ, Dr. James K. Liu | Top Neurosurgeon in Livingston, NJ
Barrow doctors haven’t been as helpful as we initially hoped, & several of our members, who should have been offered surgery there, have been turned away. One was even scheduled for styloidectomy surgery & sacrificed financially to get to AZ for surgery. The patient received a call just prior to the scheduled surgery time saying the surgery was cancelled as surgeon had decided she didn’t need surgery after all. I felt this was quite unprofessional & completely thoughtless on the doctor’s part.
It would be nice if you could share the CT/MRI scans before and after the surgery (Dicom files). I would like to understand why Constantino refused to have another surgery. Is it because of the fibrosis/scars, or is it because many people are not getting the desired results? You can anonymously download all the Dicom files from the disk (without revealing your personal information) using the website dicomlibrary com
Even with dicomlibrary.com, you have to double check that your imaging has been anonymized. We’ve had a couple of members who used that site & got 3D images back that still contained all their personal info.