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Trismus in patients with malignant tumours in the head and neck

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

Keitchi Ichimura  and
Toshlyoshi Tanaka
Keitchi Ichimura*
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan
Toshlyoshi Tanaka
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan
*
Keiichi Ichimura, M. D., Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan. Fax: 81-3-3814-9486
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Abstract

In order to elucidate the causal mechanism of trismus in head and neck cancer, 21 patients manifesting trismus out of 212 patients with malignant tumours in the head and neck (treated in Tokyo University Branch Hospital from 1983 to 1991) were reviewed. Nine patients developed trismus either by infiltration of the muscles of mastication or by reflex spasm. Trismus was considered to have developed as a result of irradiation in five cases and of surgical intervention in seven cases. In some cases of oropharyngeal cancer, CT revealed no evidence of tumour invasion into the infratemporal fossa when trismus occurred, suggesting that trismus was caused either by the reflex spasm of muscles or by microinvasion too small to be seen in CT films. Maxillary sinus tumours were often without tnsmus even when they extended posteriorly to the infratemporal fossa.

Keywords

Trismus, head and neck neoplasmsmasticatory muscles
Type
Main Articles
Information
The Journal of Laryngology & Otology , Volume 107 , Issue 11 , November 1993 , pp. 1017 - 1020
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1993

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Footnotes

This paper was presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan held in Nagoya, 15–17 May 1992.

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