Patients with recurrent throat pain, dysphagia, or facial pain symptoms might have Eagle’s syndrome due to abnormal length of the styloid process or calcification of stylohyoid ligament complex. In adults, the styloid process is approximately 2.5 cm long. The etiology of this disease is not well understood, and usually asymptomatic. In some cases, the styloid tip, which is located between the external and internal carotid arteries, compresses the perivascular sympathetic fibers, resulting in a persistent pain. The disease can be diagnosed by physical examination through digital palpation of the styloid process in the tonsillar fossa or by radiographic workup that includes anterior-posterior and lateral skull films. We report a 33-year-old woman with an incidental finding of an elongated styloid process during a routine tonsillectomy procedure.
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