I. What is “facial spasm”?
Facial muscle spasm is twitching on one side of the face (some people have bilateral spasms), and the more nervous and excited the spasm is, the more serious it is. As the initial symptom of facial myospasm is eyelid jumping, folk have “left eye jumping money, right eye jumping disaster”, so generally do not attract attention, after a period of time the foci formed, the development of facial myospasm, linked to the corners of the mouth, serious even with the neck. Facial muscle spasm can be divided into two types, one is the primary type of facial muscle spasm, and one is the facial muscle spasm produced by the sequelae of facial paralysis. The two types can be distinguished by their symptom presentation. In the case of primary facial myospasm, it can occur even at rest, and the spasm is relieved after several minutes and is not controlled; in the case of facial myospasm produced by the sequelae of facial palsy, it is only produced when doing actions such as blinking and raising eyebrows.
Second, what is the cause of facial muscle spasm?
Modern medicine believes that: a) due to some kind of compression that causes pathological disturbance of facial nerve conduction, most patients are due to normal vascular cross-compression, such as posterior inferior cerebellar artery, anterior inferior cerebellar artery, vertebral nerve artery compression, and occasionally due to compression of facial nerve root by aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation or brain tumor. b) Another proportion of patients have idiopathic facial nerve paresis with secondary facial muscle spasm on the affected side after recovery. This may be due to pathological changes in the demyelination of the nerve caused by facial neuritis that failed to return to normal. There is still a partial demyelination of the nerve sheath, making the electrical conduction of the facial nerve susceptible to generalization, or facial neuritis may involve the nucleus accumbens in the brainstem, creating an epilepsy-like focal point and producing seizure-like twitching of the facial muscles. c) Very few patients present with facial muscle spasms after traumatic tumor or surgical procedures. It may be due to short circuit with other brain nerves during the recovery process of facial nerve, and when other nerves are excited, one side of facial muscle twitching also occurs
How to treat facial muscle spasm?
1, drug treatment: a variety of anti-epileptic, sedative, tranquilizer and other drugs, a few patients can reduce the symptoms. The above drugs with vitamin B1, B12 intramuscular injection, the effect is better.
2.Drug neuroinjection therapy.
(1) Stem mammary foramen puncture method of facial nerve stem injection.
(2) Facial nerve branch injection method. (Procaine, anhydrous ethanol, easy to cause long-term non-recovery of facial paralysis)
3.Radiofrequency treatment.
This method has good recent effect, simple, safe, painless, especially suitable for those who do not want to accept craniotomy or should not perform craniotomy, and can be repeatedly applied after recurrence. After thermal coagulation will generally produce 1~4 months of light facial paralysis.
4.Botulinum toxin type A multi-point injection method.
It is effective for the above patients, with an onset of effect in 2~7 days and gradual improvement of symptoms, reaching a plateau of efficacy in about 2 months and lasting for 6~26 weeks. Repeat injections are needed at intervals of 3~6 months.
5.Surgical treatment.
(1) Facial nerve amputation and electrocoagulation: between the efficacy and anhydrous ethanol injectors, separating them, and the symptoms of patients usually disappear immediately after surgery. This treatment method has the advantages of radical, minimally invasive and low complications, and has been recognized by neurosurgeons as the most rational shot for the treatment of facial spasm and primary trigeminal neuralgia with similar maintenance time as botulinum toxin injection, which is now used sparingly.
(2) Microvascular decompression: It is considered that microvascular decompression is a treatment method for the cause of the disease, which can preserve or improve the function of facial nerve, with high cure rate and low recurrence rate, and is a safe and effective radical surgery.
What is “microvascular decompression”?
Microvascular decompression is a method in which a small skin incision and a small bone window are made in the hairline behind the patient’s ear, and the area where the nerve is compressed by the blood vessels is exposed under a microscope and a small spacer is placed between the two. This treatment method is currently recognized internationally as the preferred method for treating facial spasm and is the only method that can cure the disease, with a cure rate of over 95%. Since this operation was carried out in 2007, our hospital has achieved good results, with a 100% success rate and a 0.0% recurrence rate after the operation.
V. Which patients is microvascular decompression surgery suitable for?
1.Primary facial muscle spasm, in good general condition, willing to accept open surgery.
2.Primary facial muscle spasm, those who have performed radiofrequency thermal coagulation, botulinum toxin injection and other methods are ineffective or recurrence.
3, recurrence after microvascular decompression surgery, re-operation is still effective.
I. What is “facial spasm”?
Facial muscle spasm is twitching on one side of the face (some people have bilateral spasms), and the more nervous and excited the spasm is, the more serious it is. As the initial symptom of facial myospasm is eyelid jumping, folk have “left eye jumping money, right eye jumping disaster”, so generally do not attract attention, after a period of time the foci formed, the development of facial myospasm, linked to the corners of the mouth, serious even with the neck. Facial muscle spasm can be divided into two types, one is primary facial muscle spasm and the other is facial muscle spasm produced by the sequelae of facial paralysis. The two types can be distinguished by their symptom presentation. In the case of primary facial myospasm, it can occur even at rest, and the spasm is relieved after several minutes and is not controlled; in the case of facial myospasm produced by the sequelae of facial palsy, it is only produced when doing actions such as blinking and raising eyebrows.
Second, what is the cause of facial muscle spasm?
Modern medicine believes that: a) due to some kind of compression that causes pathological disturbance of facial nerve conduction, most patients are due to normal vascular cross-compression, such as posterior inferior cerebellar artery, anterior inferior cerebellar artery, vertebral nerve artery compression, and occasionally due to compression of facial nerve root by aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation or brain tumor. b) Another proportion of patients have idiopathic facial nerve paresis with secondary facial muscle spasm on the affected side after recovery. This may be due to pathological changes in the demyelination of the nerve caused by facial neuritis that failed to return to normal. There is still a partial demyelination of the nerve sheath, making the electrical conduction of the facial nerve susceptible to generalization, or facial neuritis may involve the nucleus accumbens in the brainstem, creating an epilepsy-like focal point and producing seizure-like twitching of the facial muscles. c) Very few patients present with facial muscle spasms after traumatic tumor or surgical procedures. It may be due to short circuit with other brain nerves during the recovery process of facial nerve, and when other nerves are excited, one side of facial muscle twitching also occurs
How to treat facial muscle spasm?
1, drug treatment: a variety of anti-epileptic, sedative, tranquilizer and other drugs, a few patients can reduce the symptoms. The above drugs with vitamin B1, B12 intramuscular injection, the effect is better.
2.Drug neuroinjection therapy.
(1) Stem mammary foramen puncture method of facial nerve stem injection.
(2) Facial nerve branch injection method. (Procaine, anhydrous ethanol, easy to cause long-term non-recovery of facial palsy)
1.Radiofrequency treatment.
This method has good recent effect, simple, safe, painless, especially suitable for those who do not want to accept open surgery or should not perform open surgery, and can be repeatedly applied after recurrence. After thermal coagulation will generally produce 1~4 months of mild facial paralysis.
2.Botulinum toxin type A multi-point injection method.
It is effective for the above patients, with an onset of effect in 2~7 days and gradual improvement of symptoms, reaching a plateau of efficacy in about 2 months and lasting for 6~26 weeks. Repeat injections are needed at intervals of 3~6 months.
3.Surgical treatment.
(1) Facial nerve amputation and electrocoagulation: between the efficacy and anhydrous ethanol injectors, separating them, and the symptoms of patients usually disappear immediately after surgery. This treatment method has the advantages of radical, minimally invasive and low complications, and has been recognized by neurosurgeons as the most reasonable shot for the treatment of facial spasm and primary trigeminal neuralgia with similar maintenance time to botulinum toxin injection, which is now used sparingly.
(2) Microvascular decompression: It is considered that microvascular decompression is a treatment method for the cause of the disease, which can preserve or improve the function of facial nerve, with high cure rate and low recurrence rate, and is a safe and effective radical surgery.
What is “microvascular decompression”?
Microvascular decompression is a method in which a small skin incision and a small bone window are made in the hairline behind the patient’s ear, and the area where the nerve is compressed by the blood vessels is exposed under a microscope and a small spacer is placed between the two. This treatment method is currently recognized internationally as the preferred method for treating facial spasm and is the only method that can cure the disease, with a cure rate of over 95%. Since this operation was carried out in 2007, our hospital has achieved good results, with a 100% success rate and a 0.0% recurrence rate after the operation.
V. Which patients is microvascular decompression surgery suitable for?
1.Primary facial muscle spasm, in good general condition, willing to accept open surgery.
2.Primary facial muscle spasm, those who perform radiofrequency thermal coagulation, botulinum toxin injection and other methods are ineffective or recurrence.