DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2022.v10i02.030

Pages: 163-166

Dysphonia is a frequent symptom in ENT outpatient clinic. In adults, apart from dysfunctional dysphonia, etiologies are linked to mucosal, muscular, joint or neural pathology of the vocal folds. The later can be of peripheral or central origin. We report the case of a patient with dysphonia in the context of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pseudo-syndrom revealing an extra-axial ependymoma of the brainstem. A 35 years-old patient with no significant history presented to the outpatient clinic for dysphonia and chronic dysarthria recently complicated by dysphagia developing in a context of deterioration of general health condition. Physical examination found symptoms compatible with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis of bulbar onset syndrom. MRI identified an extra-axial tumor of the medulla-spine junction. Neurosurgeons performed a complete surgical removal through a suboccipital approach. Dysphonia due to brainstem involvement is rare. It should be considered before clinical signs of vagus nerve damage associated to another neural tract involvement.