Elongated Styloid Process: Symptoms and Treatment

Abstract

The symptomatic elongation of a styloid process may explain some instances of pharyngeal and ear pains and some headaches, which have defied exhaustive diagnostic studies. I consider that it is a very neglected otolaryngological entity and that it is very deserving of a niche in the diagnostic armentarium of otolaryngologic practice. I venture to state that most of this group, as medical students, learned something about the styloid process from the anatomy books and the cadaver, but never had the opportunity to put this information into clinical application during the latter part of medical school or during residency training. The otolaryngological textbooks —except for a very few—completely omit any reference to the elongated styloid process, and there has been very little in the literature, even the current journals, to place the proper emphasis on this condition. Radiologists in reporting their findings in skull roentgenograms—seeking for the cause of headaches—fail to