Surgical Management of Stylohyoid Pain (Eagle's) Syndrome: A 5-Year Experience

(1) To define patient demographics and common symptoms in patients who undergo styloidectomy for stylohyoid pain syndrome (Eagle's syndrome). (2) To evaluate the effectiveness of styloidectomy in reducing symptoms of Eagle's syndrome.

Retrospective chart review and prospective case series. We retrospectively gathered demographic data on all patients at a single institution who underwent styloidectomy during a 5-year period. Using a patient symptom survey, we also gathered prospective data on a cohort of these patients presenting during the second half of the timeframe.

Thirty-two patients underwent styloidectomy for Eagle's syndrome between November 2010 and June 2015. Of these patients, 22 (68.8%) were female, 29 (90.6%) were Caucasian, and 10 (31.3%) reported history of tonsillectomy. Mean age was 46.0 years, and mean BMI was 26.1 kg/m². Nineteen patients completed the prospective survey. Average styloid length was 45.3 mm. Most severe preoperative symptoms were neck pain, otalgia, globus, facial pain, headache, and discomfort with neck turning. Thirteen of 17 individual symptoms demonstrated significant decrease in symptom scores after styloidectomy. Aggregate symptom scores also showed significant decrease postsurgically. Longer styloid length correlated with increased scores for dysphagia and odynophagia but not with conglomerate symptom scores.

Patients with Eagle's syndrome were mostly female, Caucasian, and had near-normal BMI. There is wide variability in presenting symptoms of Eagle's syndrome, but nearly all demonstrate improvement after styloidectomy. Thus, in appropriately selected patients, styloidectomy can effectively and reliably produce improvement in patient symptoms.