Vestibular symptoms in idiopathic facial palsy.

Abstract

One week after the onset of the paralysis 75% respectively 92% of the patients with Bell's palsy presented with a spontaneous or/and positional nystagmus. The spontaneous vestibular symptoms are discrete and usually not subjectively realized by the patients. No direct correlation between the degree of the vestibular disturbance and the severity of the facial nerve palsy has been found in the first week after onset of the paralysis. Only the time evolution of the spontaneous vestibular signs (particularly of the positional nystagmus) showed whether the lesion of the VII nerve was reversible or not. The present study does not confirm therefore the hypothesis that the vestibular signs present in Bell's palsy may be used for the prognostic assessment of the lesion. The quality and evolution of the vestibular signs found in Bell's palsy do confirm, on the other hand, the surgical observation that the most common site of lesion of the facial nerve in idiopathic palsy is the entrance of the Fallopian Canal and n...