Vol.99 No.11 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 99 No. 11 November 2006
A Case of Dissociated Taste Impairment after
Injury of the Major Petrosus Nerve
Goda Masakazu and Kazunori Sekine
(Yashima General Hospital)
Katsuhiko Nakamura and Noriaki Takeda
(University of Tokushima School of Medicine)
We report the case of a 16-year-old female patient with taste impairment of the soft palate. After receiving a skull fracture due to a traffic accident, she experienced the taste of bitter chocolate. CT showed the fracture around the right temporal bone. Electrogustometry showed that the decreased sensation of taste was restricted to the right soft palate. Shirmer test showed that lacrimal secretion of the right eye was decreased. These findings indicated that the selective injury of the major petrosus nerve on the right side due to the fracture caused taste impairment of the soft palate. It has been reported that the sensation of a sweet taste is more sensitive in the soft palate of young women. Therefore, it is suggested that the taste impairment of the soft palate caused the dissociated impairment of a sweet taste, resulting in the taste of bitter chocolate in the present case.
Key words :dissociated taste impairment, major petrosus nerve, soft palate