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Challenge of the Week / Spine / 05.17.19

doctor with patient looking at his spine

Backache, Medical Exam, Mature Adult, Rear View, Showing

A 48-year-old male patient who is a cigarette smoker undergoes a C2-C4 fusion with C3 corpectomy for treatment of metastatic lung cancer. The approach to the cervical spine is difficult with the tissue planes being more adherent than in non-smoking patients. Throughout the case, the anesthesia team has maintained a low endotracheal tube cuff pressure and you have maintained meticulous hemostasis and cautious retractor placement. Despite best efforts, the patient reports dysphagia and dysarthria postoperatively. Which of the following examination findings would support an injury to the hypoglossal nerve?

 

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