IMPROVEMENT OF DYSPHAGIA FOLLOWING CRICOPHARYNGEAL IN A GROUP OF ELDERLY PATIENTS - HISTOCHEMICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE CRICOPHARYNGEAL MUSCLE

Cricopharyngeal myotomy is not effective in all cases of dysphagia. Ho wever, it should be the specific treatment in cases of dysphagia cause d by a primary cricopharyngeal muscle dysfunction. Of a group of 10 pa tients with swallowing disorders in the absence of any defined cause, 7 (mean age, 81.6 years) were improved by a myotomy and 3 were not. Th e cricopharyngeal muscle was studied histologically and biochemically and compared to muscle obtained from nondysphagic subjects. In the mus cle of the 7 improved patients, homogeneous histologic abnormalities w ere demonstrated: connective tissue infiltration, inflammatory cell in filtration, and degenerative changes of the muscle fibers. Conversely, muscles of the nonimproved patients and of the controls did not prese nt the same degree of histologic lesions.