Cardiac Syncope Due to Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Glossopharyngeal neuralgia associated with bradycardia and syncope is a rare syndrome. The pain is paroxysmal and intense, felt in the ear, throat, posterior part of the tongue, soft palate, and lower lateral and posterior parts of the pharynx. The pain is accompanied by bradycardia or asystole and, at times, syncope with associated convulsions.1-5 This report describes the clinical picture and hospital course of a patient with this syndrome whose syncopal attacks were prevented by a cardiac pacemaker. A 14-day trial of diphenylhydantoin (Dilantin) was used in an attempt to control the paroxysms of pain but was unsuccessful, necessitating surgical resection of the glossopharyngeal nerve. Patient Summary A 46-year-old woman was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital for the first time in February 1969. She had been seen as an outpatient at another hospital seven years previously when she complained of paroxysms of severe pain below the right ear radiating down