A Rare Case of Elongated Styloid Process Fracture.

BACKGROUND An elongated styloid process occurs with Eagle syndrome and causes a variety of symptoms. Fracture of the elongated styloid process is a rare condition. With spontaneous fractures, appropriate treatment cannot be performed in many cases due to unexplained symptoms and indefinite complaints that are not thoroughly examined. CASE REPORT We encountered a case of fractured elongate styloid process reaching the hyoid bone. Based on the findings from cervical 3-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT), we chose surgery using the transcervical approach instead of the intraoral approach. Symptoms resolved following surgery. CONCLUSIONS A fractured styloid process is a rare event, but it needs to be recognized. If drug therapy does not work, surgical treatment is needed and has been shown to be effective. Surgical therapies include an intraoral approach and a transcervical approach. In the case presented here, 3D-CT was very useful for diagnosis and surgery selection.