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Cause of Bell's Palsy Identified | |
| By DR. JEFFREY L. NELSON New York University Medical Center For AP Special Features Japanese researchers appear to have solved one of the long-standing mysteries in neurology: What causes the facial paralysis called Bell's palsy? The answer: herpes simplex virus 1, a member of a large family of viruses. It's not clear yet whether the finding will have a major effect on treatment of the condition. But it does seem to answer a question that has been asked since the disease was identified by a 19th-century Scottish physician. Facial paralysis can be caused by a number of conditions, including Lyme disease, meningitis and some facial tumors. Bell's palsy, the most common cause, almost always affects just one side of the face. It usually comes on suddenly, sometime with a few days' warning in the way of an odd feeling in the face. And in perhaps 85 percent of cases, the paralysis disappears in four months or less. Most of the problems it causes are purely cosmetic, a result of the paralysis of facial muscles. But it can cause dry eye syndrome, and problems blinking or closing the eye, which can lead to corneal damage by reducing the production of tears. That problem can be handled with non-medicated eye drops, ointment, manual or surgical eyelid closure or gold weight implants in the eyelid. Some patients complain that ordinary sounds become unusually loud, because a muscle in the ear is affected, and some suffer mastoid pain or experience changes in taste. Steroids such as prednisone often are given to patients. They ease the acute pain often caused by the condition and they may speed recovery. There has long been speculation that a viral infection causes the swelling of the facial nerve that induces Bell's palsy, but efforts to prove it have been unsuccessful until now. The Japanese team used a technology called polymerase chain reaction to look for the genetic material of herpes simplex 1 in patients who had undergone surgery for Bell's palsy. They found the genetic material for herpes simplex 1 in the Bell's patients but not in a matched group of patients with another neurological disorder. The finding provides a rationale for use of anti-viral drugs such as acyclovir to treat Bell's palsy. --- Dr. Jeffrey L. Nelson is a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine. Copyright 1996 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | |