Eagle’s syndrome refers to the symptomatic elongation of the styloid process (SP) or ossification of the stylohyoid ligament (SHL), typically presenting with cervicofacial pain, dysphagia or vascular compression. While often symptomatic, a large proportion of cases remain undetected in life and are diagnosed incidentally during imaging or autopsy. This study represents three cases describing incidental findings of elongated SP (Eagle’s syndrome) found during routine medicolegal autopsies. Three adult males were found to have unilateral and bilateral elongated styloid processes or ossified SHLs without any prior history suggestive of Eagle’s syndrome. In our study, the length of the elongated styloid processes observed ranged 4.1–8.0 cm. In none of the cases was the causal relationship between this anatomical variant and the cause of death established. These autopsy findings highlight the clinically uninvestigated nature of many Eagle’s syndrome cases. Awareness regarding this entity becomes essential for both clinicians and forensic pathologists, especially when evaluating unexplained oro-facial pain, dysphagia and neurological complaints in life and also during medico-legal autopsy.
Kumar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.