Bilateral seventh nerve palsy

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Among inpatients with facial diplegia, one-half (22 patients) had benign, self-limited causes, including Bell9s palsy (10), Guillain-Barré syndrome (5), multiple idiopathic cranial neuropathies (3), brainstem encephalitis (2), Miller Fisher syndrome (1), and association with benign intracranial hypertension (1). Nine patients had tumors: four meningeal, three prepontine, and two intrapontine. Syphilis (2 patients), Hansen9s disease (1), cryptococ-cal meningitis with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (1), and tuberculous meningitis (1) constituted those with an infectious etiology, while miscellaneous causes included one patient each with diabetes, sarcoidosis, head trauma, pontine tegmental hemorrhage, undiagnosed Möbius syndrome in an adult, systemic lupus erythematosus with severe neuropathy, and slowly progressive degeneration–possibly bulbospinal neuronopathy. Bilaterality makes facial neuropathy a more ominous sign with widely varying causes that requires prompt investigation.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: