Abstract
In the past 17 years, we treated 817 cases of facial palsy in our clinic, including 57 cases (7.0%) of recurrent facial palsy. There was no sex predominance. Eighteen of these 57 patients had homolateral palsy, 33 had contralateral type and 6 were of unknown type. The intervals between the first and 2nd onset of facial palsy ranged from 7 months to 32 years, and facial palsy in about 50% of cases recurred within 5 years. The peak age at the onset of palsy was 40-59 years, and the recurrent peak age was 40-69 years. Incidence of family history of facial palsy was 10.5% in patients with recurrent facial palsy and 5.8% in patients with nonrecurrent palsy. Respectively, incidence of hypertension, liver dysfunction and diabetes mellitus was 19.3%, 8.8% and 7.0% in patients with recurrent facial palsy and 10.7%, 1.7% and 5.5% in patients with nonrecurrent palsy. In our opinion, the etiological factors of recurrent facial palsy include a genetic factor, hypertension and liver dysfunction.
