Facial Palsy

Original Editor - Your name will be added here if you created the original content for this page.

Lead Editors  

Clinically Relevant Anatomy

add text here relating to clinically relevant anatomy of the condition

Mechanism of Injury / Pathological Process

Causes of Facial Palsy:

• Idiopathic/viral

Bell's Palsy

Ramsey Hunt Syndrome

Clinical Presentation

Paralysis of the muscles supplied by the Facial Nerve presents on the affected side of the face as follows:

Appearance and range of movement:

Inability to close the eye

Inability to move the lips eg. into smile, pucker

At rest, the affected side of the face may "droop"

Functional effects:

Difficulty eating and drinking as lack of lip seal makes it difficult to keep fluids and food in the oral cavity

Reduced clarity of speech as the "labial consonents" (ie. b, p, m, v, f) all require lip seal 

Differential Diagnosis:

If the forehead is not affected (ie the patient is able to raise fully the eyebrow on the affected side) then the facial palsy is likely to be a result of a lesion in the Upper Motor Neuron. Paralysis which includes the forehead, such that the patient is unable to raise the affected eyebrow, is a Lower Motor Neuron lesion.

Diagnostic Procedures

add text here relating to diagnostic tests for the condition

Outcome Measures

add links to outcome measures here (see Outcome Measures Database)

Management / Interventions

add text here relating to management approaches to the condition

Differential Diagnosis

add text here relating to the differential diagnosis of this condition

Key Evidence

add text here relating to key evidence with regards to any of the above headings

Resources

add appropriate resources here

Case Studies

add links to case studies here (case studies should be added on new pages using the case study template)

References

References will automatically be added here, see adding references tutorial.