retro pharyngeal course of carotid arteries

Hi, @kmacky

My understanding is retro pharyngeal course of the carotid arteries is not necessarily a diagnosis, rather a description of the path some people’s carotid arteries take behind the throat. It can be important with surgeries or evaluations involving the neck.

I found information you may already be aware of. This article that explains one reason why it’s important to be aware of, that these arteries can actually move over time and cause complications. Also, it may be a contributing factor in sleep apnea because of the anatomy:

-The Moving Carotid Artery: A Retrospective Review of the Retropharyngeal Carotid Artery and the Incidence of Positional Changes on Serial Studies: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7959956/

If you are comfortable, it may help others know how to comment if you explain more as to why you are asking. Are you asking because you have been told your carotids are positioned this way? If so, what impact are they having?

@jlharsh

Thank you so much for this information. Yes I understand. It’s not actually a diagnosis but at 73 years old, it was kind of shocking that it’s never come up before I was in the hospital for some bacterial infections and it came up on a set of CAT scans that they were running. I’ve been having continuous bacterial infections in my salivary glands ,esophagus, have had pneumonia have been anemic, iron deficient. I have auto immune diagnosis, rheumatoid arthritis, CKD stage three a. All sorts of things coming up in this old age of mine. I have gone through four primary physicians in the past year and I have yet to find one that I have any confidence in most don’t read the lab reports thoroughly and if they do, they don’t share any information with me really. Our whole county is short of rheumatologists And of course, my Medicare advantage plan doesn’t cover the few that are here in their network.
This article was extremely helpful. I learned a lot, and I really appreciate the fact that you shared it with me. I’m going to keep it and continue to read it and absorb as much as I can at one time it’s pretty lengthy, but it certainly is worth the read every bit of it so thank you very much.

@kmacky it’s been a few months since your post. I hope this finds you well, but I too will call it diagnosed because it was found. With the retropharyngeal carotid artery, I like you had no clue although a bit younger at 56. I also have another artery issue that apparently I was born with and had no clue either. I had and still have problems developed with snoring, I have bad environmental sensitivities, which I believe makes my throat close up easier since the artery is taking up some space and sometimes it feels like food or pills get stuck in my throat. I came here because I was looking for other people that have it and what they experience or tips and tricks. I know we’re all different, but I specifically came here to see who else in a community had this and could commiserate. While I can read an article and I will, I thought this community was to share things. So I would like to do just that with you if you get this post. Thanks.