Pediatric myasthenia gravis and velopharyngeal incompetence

Objective: To determine the clinical course of vetopharyngeal 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 vetopharyngeal inadequacy (VPI) to a tertiary care academic pediatric center. Children with vetopharyngeal incompetence due to myasthenia gravis were identified and their clinical courses were reviewed. Results: Four children were identified with vetopharyngeal. 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 tong-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. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.