Surgical treatment for dysphagia of neuromuscular origin

There are a number of surgical procedures which can be used to improve swallowing in selected dysphagic patients. These include: vocal fold augmentation or medialization, cricopharyngeal myotomy, laryngeal suspension, intrahyoid myotomy, lateral thyrolaminectomy and tracheoesophageal separation procedures. This article describes these various procedures and their appropriate application to selected dysphagic patients. Results of a study of the location of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in relation to the cricopharyngeal muscle are also presented.