Facial paralysis
Background
Clinical Features
Differential Diagnosis
Facial paralysis
- Bell's palsy
- CVA
- Trigeminal neuralgia
- Tick paralysis
- Herpes zoster oticus (Ramsay Hunt syndrome)
- CNS tumor
- Acoustic neuroma or other cerebellopontine angle lesions
- Meningioma
- Cerebellar pontine angle
- Facial nerve schwannoma
- Parotid
- Sarcoma
- Anesthesia nerve blocks
- Cerebral Aneurysms (vertebral, basilar, or carotid)
Evaluation
- Forehead "sparing", or normal muscle tone of the forehead, suggests a central process
- Involvement of forehead muscles suggests a peripheral process