Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is more common in children with Down syndrome, affecting up to 60% of patients, and may persist in up to 50% of patients after adenotonsillectomy. These children with persistent moderate to severe OSA require continuous positive airway pressure, which is often poorly tolerated, or even tracheotomy for severe cases. The hypoglossal nerve stimulator is an implantable...

Medial medullary infarction is characterized by ipsilateral hypoglossal nerve palsy, contralateral hemiparesis sparing the face, and contralateral disturbance of deep sensation. Although it is possible to make a clinical diagnosis in typical patients, diagnosis is difficult if hypoglossal nerve palsy is absent. We describe a patient with medial medullary infarction without hypoglossal nerve pal...

Synaptic basis of the rhythmical activity induced by repetitive stimulation of the masticatory area of the cerebral cortex was studied by intracellular recording from hypoglossal motoneurons in cats, with the following results: (1) Repetitive cortical stimulation induced rhythmical tongue movements coordinated with rhythmical jaw movements. After the animal was paralyzed, the cortical stimulati...

During the past seven years 347 patients have been entered into a data bank at the Duke University Medical Center for evaluation of transient neurologic ischemia. One hundred fifty eight of these patients had carotid endarterectomies of whom 24 (15.1%) developed 26 (16.4%) peripheral cranial nerve palsies. Injury to the peripheral portion of the hypoglossal nerve was noted in 13 patients, to th...

The hypoglossal nerve receives only brief mention in most textbooks and compared with other cranial nerve palsies, 12th nerve palsy is much less common. We report a 52-year-old woman who presented with right-sided headaches for over a year. It was only on examination that we discovered she had an abnormal tongue. She had wasting and fasciculations on the right side of her tongue, which was devi...

A 47 year old woman presented two weeks before admission with a severe right sided headache followed by pain in her right ear and right scalp which was tender to touch, and mild dysphagia. On examination she had a right hypoglossal nerve palsy (figure A), the remainder of the neurological and general examination was normal. Brain CT (figure B) showed a soft tissue density mass lying medial to t...

supply to cranial nerves X and XII, and thus carotid dissection after minor trauma may lead to sudden cranial nerve X and XII palsies. For this reason, in the present case, MR angiography and carotid triplex scan took place but did not reveal any abnormality. Additionally, Tapia’s syndrome can be considered as a localized lesion at the crossing of the recurrent laryngeal and hypoglossal nerves....

BACKGROUND Neurostimulation of the hypoglossal nerve has shown promising results in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. This anatomic study describes the detailed topography of the hypoglossal nerve's motor points as a premise for super-selective neurostimulation in order to optimize results and minimize the risk of complications related to main nerve trunk manipulation. METHODS Thirty ...