Pediatric myasthenia gravis and velopharyngeal incompetence

Abstract

Objective: To determine the clinical course of velopharyngeal incompetence in children with myasthenia gravis (MG).

Methods: A 30-year retrospective study was performed using the medical records of 538 children who presented with velopharyngeal inadequacy (VPI) to a tertiary care academic pediatric center. Children with velopharyngeal incompetence due to myasthenia gravis were identified and their clinical courses were reviewed.

Results: Four children were identified with velopharyngeal incompetence associated with myasthenia gravis. All four children required intervention for improvement of speech intelligibility. A speech prosthesis was the uniform intervention.

Conclusion: Neonatal myasthenia gravis patients should be followed long-term as symptoms may recur as speech impairment. In addition, a high index of suspicion for this entity is required for early diagnosis due to the highly variable presentation and clinical course.