Abstract
Bilateral simultaneous facial palsy is rare. We encountered a 37-year-old male who presented with complete facial palsy on both sides within a 2-day interval (first the right side, then the left side 2 days later). There were no dysfunctions in the cranial nerves except for the 7th cranial nerve, and no abnormalities on ABR or MRI. This case was considered due to peripheral facial palsy. The results of all nerve excitability tests (NET) were within 6.0±0.5mA. Our tests did not indicate the cause of this disorder.
We will report the course of recovery for both the right and left sides in this case. The rate of recovery has been assessed according to the facial score proposed by Yanagihara.
In this case, recovery of the facial palsy began on the right side, one day before recovery on the left side began. Both right and left facial scores recovered to the same level 14 days after onset. The left side was completely cured by the 40th day, but the right side was not completely cured until the 5th month of treatment. As for the recovery of the three facial divisions (frontal, ocular, and oral division), the left side followed the same pattern throughout the course. In contrast, the right side followed a different course after the 3rd week.
We suspect that these different courses of clinical recovery were caused by either a time-lag between the onset of the disorder and the initiation of treatment, or differences in the localization of the disorder, or both.
