Surgical treatment for dysphagia of neuromuscular origin

There are a number of surgical procedures which can be used to improve swal lowing in selected dysphagic patients. These include: vocal fold augmentati on or medialization, cricopharyngeal myotomy, laryngeal suspension, intrahy oid myotomy, lateral thyrolaminectomy and tracheoesophageal separation proc edures. This article describes these various procedures and their appropria te application to selected dysphagic patients. Results of a study of the lo cation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in relation to the cricopharyngeal muscle are also presented.