Case series and literature review reveals diverse clinical etiologies in recurrent peripheral facial palsy, highlighting that many cases remain idiopathic despite extensive diagnostic testing.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the differential diagnosis of recurrent or bilateral peripheral facial palsy. METHOD: Case report and literature review. RESULTS: Two patients with recurrent, alternating, peripheral facial palsy are described. In both patients, additional investigation was performed to search for a specific diagnosis. In the first patient, only a positive family history was found, indicating a possible familial susceptibility. In the other patient, diabetes mellitus and hypertension were identified as risk factors. CONCLUSION: There is an important and extensive differential diagnosis of recurrent or bilateral facial palsy. However, in a large proportion of patients the cause remains unknown.
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Oosterveer et al. (2012) studied this question.
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