The pterygoid hamulus syndrome – An important differential in orofacial pain

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to document cases of pterygoid hamulus (PH) syndrome and to describe the various etiology, differential diagnosis, and management strategies so far reported in literature. Here, we also present two case reports of PH syndrome. A comprehensive search in PubMed/Medline database was done using MeSH terms such as “Pterygoid Hamulus,” “Pterygoid Hamulus Syndrome,” and “Hamular Bursitis” using various Boolean operators such as “AND” and “OR”. Till date, 31 cases of this entity including the present cases have been found. Conservative management was followed in the earlier reported cases; however, most cases were treated by surgical resection.

Keywords

• bursitis
• facial
• hamular
• pain
• syndrome