Retropharyngeal tendinitis.

A rare clinical syndrome, with acute onset of severe pains localized in the back of the neck and aggravated by head movements and swallowing, has been studied in 28 patients. X-ray examinations of the cervical spine and prevertebral soft tissues in straight lateral projection of all patients in the acute phase showed significant soft-tissue swelling anterior to the vertebral bodies of C1-C4. Eighteen patients had an amorphous calcific deposit below the tuberculum anterius atlantis in or near the mid-line. The clinical symptoms were characteristic, with a benign course and freedom from complaints and regression of the radiological changes after 1-2 weeks. The diagnosis was usually made clinically and confirmed after two or more X-ray examinations of the cervical spine and the prevertebral soft tissues. The disease was in all probability caused by acute tendinitis in the longus colli musculus.