Dysphagia is an infrequent result of lateral medullary infarction (Wallenberg’s Syndrome). Patients with confirmed lateral medullary infarction have various severity of dysphagia;

35 patients with lateral medullary infarction were evaluated who showed correlated dysphagia with the MRI lesions. MRI studies were performed using a 1.5-T superconducting magnet. To understand the clinical difference between rostral and caudal medullary lesions, we divided the patients into two groups according to MRI findings. Two segments of the medulla were evaluated using T2-weighted axial cuts: 1. rostral and 2. caudal medulla. Dysphagia severity assessed by dysphagia grading system [Grade 0 - NO dysphagia, Grade 1 - mild, Grade 2 - moderate, Grade 3 - moderately severe, Grade 4 - severe dysphagia]; Statistics performed by SPSS-11.0; 

21 (60%) patients were evaluated as rostral medullary infarction. All of them had various severity of dysphagia (from Grade 1 to Grade 4): 16 (76.2%) patients with moderately severe and severe dysphagia (Grade 3 and Grade 4), 5 (23.8%) patients with mild and moderate dysphagia (Grade 1 and Grade 2);  14 (40%) patients were evaluated as caudal medullary infarction. 10 (71.5%) of them had no dysphagia (Grade 0), only 4 (28.5%) patients were able to swallow solid foods with some difficulty (Grade 1 – mild dysphagia);

According to the results of our study, dysphagia is more severe in the rostral medullary infarction group than in the caudal group.