Does facial paralysis have sequelae? Does facial paralysis have sequelae?

Facial paralysis is mainly caused by the facial nerves being damaged and unable to respond to stimulation. The entire facial muscles are paralyzed and no expression can be made. For this problem, you need to follow the doctors' advice and use the correct medication to help the nerves recover. If we ignore this problem, facial spasms and exaggerated expressions may occur, which will affect our work and life.

The sequelae of facial paralysis generally refers to the situation where the facial paralysis lasts for more than 3 months, the disease is delayed due to improper treatment methods, or it has not been cured after multiple treatment methods. The specific manifestations include no eyebrow lifting movement or low eyebrow lifting, large or small eyes or loose upper eyelids, wrong corners of the mouth when raising eyebrows, pulling of the mouth corners when closing eyes, small eyes when puffing out the mouth, shallow nasolabial groove, facial stiffness, food stagnation, tearing, etc., which bring inconvenience to the patient's life and psychological discomfort. There are four common types of clinical manifestations of complications after facial paralysis: hemifacial spasm, combined facial muscle movement, crocodile tears syndrome, and hemifacial muscle spasm.

1. Hemifacial spasm is mainly manifested by paroxysmal involuntary spasms or twitches of the facial expression muscles on one side. The sites of occurrence include the eyes, corners of the mouth, platysma muscles, etc. It is mostly unilateral and rarely affects both sides.

2. The corners of the mouth move toward the affected side when the eyes are closed due to combined facial muscle movement, or the affected side closes the eyes when the corners of the mouth move.

3. Crocodile tears syndrome: Patients with facial paralysis often experience facial muscle spasm or diffuse facial muscle reaction when they shed tears, and their tears become increasingly dry, or even unable to shed.

4. Facial muscle spasm: Rapid, unstable convulsive contractions occur on one side of the facial paralysis, often accompanied by blinking movements.

treat

1. Drug treatment generally uses drugs such as nerve nutrition (B vitamins) to improve local blood circulation, reduce facial nerve edema, and promote functional recovery. Carbamazepine is the drug of choice for hemifacial spasm.

2. Traditional Chinese medicine should try not to use electroacupuncture, electric massage or other treatment methods that are too heavy or too frequent. While using acupuncture treatment, Chinese medicine fumigation and nerve nourishing drugs can be used to help nerve recovery.

3. Botulinum toxin type A injection When the sequelae of facial paralysis manifests as facial muscle spasm, botulinum toxin type A can be injected at the spasm site. The injection should be performed under the guidance of electromyography as much as possible. Most patients can achieve satisfactory results, but some patients will relapse 3 to 6 months after botulinum toxin type A injection, and re-injection is still effective.

4. Surgical treatment: Plastic surgery can be used for patients with sequelae of facial paralysis who are not responsive to conservative treatment. The latest method currently used at home and abroad is small muscle free transplantation, which has the advantages of no facial swelling deformity and secondary donor site disorders, little damage, less pain for patients, short course of disease, short-term static effect, and long-term dynamic effect.