title: Tapia syndrome after cervical spine surgery.
abstract: Tapia syndrome is a rare entity characterized by unilateral paralysis of the tongue and vocal cord caused by X(th) and XII(th) cranial nerve lesions. However, there has been no report of Tapia syndrome immediately following spine surgery. A 47-year-old man underwent posterior decompressive laminectomy for cervical stenosis. The surgery took about 117 minutes and it was uneventful. Postoperatively he developed hoarseness of voice during speech, with deviation of tongue protrusion. On laryngoscopic examination, paralysis of the left side of the tongue and the soft palate was found and complete palsy of the left vocal cord was noted. After excluding surgical cause and craniocervical lesion, a clinical diagnosis of Tapia syndrome was made. Here we report a rare case of Tapia syndrome developed after posterior approach for cervical spine surgery and discuss the possible mechanisms of this uncommon syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Chosun University College of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Chosun University College of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Min
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chosun University College of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Seok Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Cranial nerve palsy; Spine surgery; Tapia syndrome