What is the Name of the Fleshy Area in the Middle of the Throat?

The small piece of flesh in the middle of the throat is called the uvula. The uvula is generally a small cone-shaped body suspended in the middle of the posterior margin of the soft palate in the mouth. It is usually hanging down. When food enters the mouth, the uvula will prevent food from entering the nasal cavity. The uvula also has a unique function, which is that the uvula can produce a glottal stop sound, also known as a "trill".

The uvula may also suffer from diseases, including uvular cleft, acute uvular edema, and uvular cancer. If any of the following situations occur, it is recommended to seek medical attention promptly for diagnosis and treatment to avoid delaying treatment.

When examining the patient's oropharynx, a small notch is seen at the tip of the uvula or a complete cleft extending to the base of the uvula. It is one of the congenital malformations. It is caused by the failure of the two lateral cleft protrusions to fuse with each other during embryonic development, resulting in abnormal development of the two halves of the soft palate during closure. It is often accompanied by cleft palate or short palate deformity. In mild cases, swallowing is not affected; in severe cases, swallowing disorders or speech disorders may occur due to incomplete closure of the velopharyngeal port, and due to the associated palatal muscle defect, poor patency of the Eustachian tube can easily lead to exudative otitis media or acute and chronic suppurative otitis media.

Acute uvular edema can be caused by trauma and is part of an allergic reaction or infection process. Clumsy tracheal intubation can lead to uvular edema, and the patient may feel a lump in the throat, which resolves within 72 hours.

Uvular cancer is an epithelial malignancy that occurs on the uvula. Its clinical presentation and treatment are similar to "palatal cancer".