title: Upper esophageal sphincter myotomy in oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy: long-term clinical results.
abstract: From 1980 to 1995, 53 patients with oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) underwent an upper esophageal sphincter (UES) myotomy for the control of marked dysphagia. From this number, a group of 21 patients had been evaluated for preoperative and postoperative symptoms in 1987. The same clinical assessment was performed in 1995 by an independent evaluator for a total of 37 patients including 12 patients from the first group. As a whole, after a mean follow-up of 6.2 years, surgery succeeded in 18 patients (49%), gave a partial improvement in 12 (32%) and failed in seven (19%). The 12 patients evaluated twice (in 1987 and 1995) have had very good early results, 8-69 months after UES myotomy: dysphagia was totally relieved in eight patients, occurred rarely in three and was moderate in one. Nevertheless, the very long-term follow-up (8 years later) has shown a recurrence of the swallowing and tracheobronchial symptoms in many cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fradet
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pouliot
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Robichaud
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: St-Pierre
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bouchard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004943:Esophagogastric Junction / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009136:Muscular Dystrophies / Q000150:complications*; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles; D010609:Pharyngeal Muscles; D016896:Treatment Outcome