Pediatric facial palsy can also develop defect healing and synkinesia that require treatment

Introduction There are hardly any studies on pediatric facial palsy (FP) and only uncertain treatment advices in the Guidelines. Despite of the supposedly gut recovery, children and adults visit frequently in our Facial-Nerv-Center (FNC), who still suffer from late effects even years after acute facial nerve palsy in childhood.

Methods All patients treated since 2003 who had FP =18 years of age were retrospectively recorded. The Age, first onset of FP, gender, etiology, diagnosis, therapy and outcome of recovery were collected. The children were divided into children with initial treatment in the FNC <> 3 months after onset (acute group versus late group).

Results The 84 patients (57 %  female) who suffered FP as a child were on average 8.4 years (min: 0; max: 18) old when the FP occurred. So far 62 patients have been evaluated: 20 children belonged to the acute group who received glucocorticoid therapy. 4 children developed synkinesia in the course of disease.

42 children belonged to the late group and visited us an average of 135 months after the onset of FP. The most common cause was congenital with 38 % , idiopathic with 21 %  and acute infection with 12 % . 50 %  had synkinesia, 24 %  of which were treated with botulinum toxin and 52 %  with physiotherapy. Synkinesia improved in 64 %  of the patients with this treatment.

Conclusion In contrast to the current literature, many pediatric FPs show no recovery, but rather permanent defect healing with synkinesia. Therefore, the acute treatment of childhood FP should urgently be improved and standardized

Poster-PDF A-1683.pdf

Conflict of interest

Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenskonflikt an.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
13. Mai 2021