CASE REPORT article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Neurosurgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1613887
Head Injury presenting as lower cranial nerve palsy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sawai ManSingh Medical College, Jaipur, India
- 2Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
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Lower cranial nerve palsy is a rare condition, most commonly caused by malignant skull base lesions or internal carotid artery dissection, and only rarely results from trauma. We report two cases of road traffic accidents presenting with lower cranial nerve palsy involving cranial nerves IX, X, and XI. Both patients had similar clinical complaints. The most important findings were a dislocated occipital condyle fracture and suspected associated soft tissue injury. Both were treated conservatively with a rigid cervical collar. A nasogastric tube was required only for the first patient during the initial recovery period due to severe dysphagia, while the second patient tolerated oral intake and did not require enteral feeding. Both patients showed gradual improvement in symptoms during hospitalization and follow-up. These injuries, with their often subtle clinical presentation, may be easily overlooked and require prompt recognition to prevent complications.
Keywords: Cranial nerve palsy, Head injury, Lower cranial nerve, Occipital Condyle, Trauma
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gupta, Gupta, Bele and Sheikh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shubham Gupta, adshubh@gmail.com
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