Figure 7 - Premature leakage.

Films from two separate patients reveal the appearance of premature leakage from the mouth. a: This still frame from a cinepharyngogram in the lateral projection demonstrates contrast leaking over the dorsum of the tongue into the valleculae (black arrows). Note that the soft palate (u) is incompletely apposed to the posterior portion of the tongue. There is the potential for aspiration into the open vestibule of the larynx (white arrows). b: In the frontal projection there is unilateral leakage over the back of the left side of the tongue into the left vallecula (v) with overflow into the left piriform sinus (ps). (Source: Jones B, ed. Normal and Abnormal Swallowing: Imaging in Diagnosis and Therapy. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2003, with permission.)