1993 Volume 1993 Issue Supplement61 Pages 233-237
Bell's palsy as idiopathic is in about 60% of patients with peripheral facial nerve palsy. Therefore, peripheral facial palsy is often diagnosed as Bell's palsy. However, the peripheral facial palsy can be caused by severe diseases such as carcinoma, and is important to deal with carefully.
This pap e r reports the case of a 75-year-old male with facial nerve palsy. He also suffered from tinnitus, difficulty in swallowing, and left occipitalgia. Clinical examinations revealed that the facial palsy originated from temporal bone metastasis of hepato-cellular carcinoma. As therapy, the metastatic lesion was irradiated. The headache was relieved and the swallowing disturbance was also fairly improved. Even in primary hepatoma, palliative radiation therapy to the metastatic focus might be useful in view of the patient's quality of Life.
Temporal bone metastases are seldom reported, and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma is very rare even in the literature. In this case, not only biopsy results, but also both imagings and tumor marker played an important role.
