Bilateral facial nerve paralysis is an extremely rare disease with an annual incidence
of 1 in 5 million cases. Although unilateral facial nerve paralysis is often a benign
illness, bilateral facial nerve palsy is a harbinger of more serious pathology. We
present the case of a 25-year-old man who presented with alternating left then right
facial weakness. We diagnosed him with bilateral facial nerve palsy and scheduled
further diagnostic tests, but he was lost to follow-up. Given the severity of the
differential diagnosis of bilateral facial nerve paralysis, diagnostic tests must
be done at time of initial presentation. The self-resolving nature of this symptom
makes follow-up difficult in this unique subset of patients.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Subscribe to The American Journal of Emergency Medicine
Already a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Alternating facial paralysis in a girl with hypertension.in: Case Report. Arch Argent Pediat. 111.6. 2013: e133-e135 ([Web.])
- Simultaneous bilateral Bell's palsy during pregnancy.J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2009; 22.12 ([Web.]): 1211-1213
- Mouth movement disturbance as a sequela of bilateral Bell's palsy.Otol Neurotol. 2009; 30.6 ([Web.]): 847-850
- I can't move my face! A case of bilateral facial palsy.JAOA. 2013; 113.10 ([Web.]): 788-790
- Differential diagnosis of recurrent or bilateral peripheral facial palsy.J Laryngol Otol. 2012; 126.08 ([Web.]): 833-836
- Bell's palsy: the spontaneous course of 2,500 peripheral facial nerve palsies of different etiologies.Acta Otolaryngol. 2002; 122.7 ([Web.]): 4-30
- Recurrent Bell’s palsy.Laryngoscope. 1988; 98.5 ([Web.]): 535-540
- EBV infection as etiology of ostomastoiditis with peripheral facial paralysis in the child.Schweiz Med Wochenschr Suppl. 2000; 116 ([Print.]): 87S-89S
- Bilateral facial nerve paralysis and acute HIV-1 infection.Int J Case Rep Images. 2011; 2.8 ([Web.]): 5
- Peripheral facial nerve palsy associated with HIV infection.Lancet. 1989; 333.8637 ([Web.]): 553-554
- Isolated peripheral facial paralysis and HIV infection: 7 cases.Rev Nuerol. 1995; 151 ([Print.]): 332-337
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: November 20, 2015
Accepted:
November 18,
2015
Received in revised form:
November 18,
2015
Received:
November 18,
2015
Footnotes
☆This case report highlights an extremely rare disease and discuses important differential diagnosis.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
