Case Report
A Case of Cervical Anterior Longitudinal Ligament Ossification Causing Dysphagia and Lung Aspiration
Ryo Tanabe, Yasuhiro Koide, Tetsuya
Yumoto, Taihei Yamada, Yasuaki Yamakawa,
Yoshinori Okazaki, Tomoyuki Takigawa,
Hiromichi Naito, Atsunori Nakao
Correspondence Address :
Atsunori Nakao
Department of Emergency
Critical Care and Disaster Medicine
Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences
2-5-1
Shikata-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi
Okayama, 700-8558, Japan
Tel: +81-86-235-7426, Fax: +81-86-235-
7427
Email: iqq-nakao@okayama-u.ac.jp
Received on: March 02, 2018, Accepted on: March 15, 2018, Published on: March 22, 2018
Citation: Ryo Tanabe, Yasuhiro Koide, Tetsuya Yumoto, Taihei Yamada, Yasuaki Yamakawa, Yoshinori Okazaki, Tomoyuki Takigawa, Hiromichi
Naito, Atsunori Nakao (2018). A Case of Cervical Anterior Longitudinal Ligament Ossification Causing Dysphagia and Lung Aspiration
Copyright: 2018 Atsunori Nakao, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Ossified anterior longitudinal ligament (OALL) in the cervical spine can cause dysphagia and dyspnea, although these symptoms are rare. We report a 67-year-old man presenting dyspnea and dysphagia caused by OALL, which was successfully treated by surgical intervention. The patient had a history of a few months of gradually increasing dysphagia and repeated pneumonia. At the time of admission, he manifested respiratory distress with stridor. Computed tomography (CT) of the chest showed consolidation in the right lung. Esophagography revealed obstruction of the esophageal passage by external compression with a pool at the laryngopharynx. Cervical CT revealed large anterior degenerative osteophytic spurs between C2 and C5, resulting in esophageal compression. The OALL was removed. The patient's postoperative course was unremarkable and his symptoms improved. Emergency physicians should consider surgical decompression for cases of marked projection of esophagus-obstructing cervical osteophytes as seen in our case. Among the several causes of dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia, severe osteophyte formation in the cervical spine should be considered.
Keywords: Ossified anterior longitudinal ligament, Dysphagia, Aspiration pneumonia