Left eye jump wealth, right eye jump disaster? In our lives, we may have eyelid jumping, many people did not take it too seriously, but if your eyelids keep jumping, you should pay attention to it, you may be suffering from a functional neurological disease called facial muscle spasm. What exactly is facial muscle spasm? This disease in the end there is no way to treat it? Today I give you a swing aha. First, what is facial muscle spasm? Facial muscle spasm, also known as facial muscle twitching, refers to one or both sides of the facial muscles recurrent paroxysmal, involuntary twitching, aggravated by emotional excitement or nervousness, severe cases can appear difficult to open the eyes, crooked corners of the mouth. Facial muscle spasms usually occur unilaterally, and in a very small number of patients, they occur bilaterally. Clinically, we generally categorize facial muscle spasm into typical facial muscle spasm and atypical facial muscle spasm. Typical facial muscle spasm refers to facial twitching that starts from the eyelid (usually the outer eyelid) and gradually develops downward to involve the facial expression muscles and orbicularis oculi muscles (the corners of the mouth on the same side), which is also often described by the patient as “eyelid jumping linked to the corner of the mouth twitching”. Atypical facial muscle spasms, on the other hand, usually start with twitching at one corner of the mouth and gradually involve eyelid jumping on the same side. From the clinical statistics, atypical facial muscle spasm patients are very few, the vast majority of patients are typical facial muscle spasm. Second, what causes the occurrence of facial muscle spasm? 1, vascular compression: facial nerve out of the brainstem region there is vascular compression. Because the facial nerve in the brain stem issued by the part, the space is narrow, blood vessels and nerves are densely packed, easy due to “vascular tortuosity, atherosclerosis” and other factors appear blood vessels and nerves together or even appear compression and lead to the emergence of symptoms. It is as if the nerve is an electric wire, due to “long-term compression” leads to “peeling” of the wire, and then it is easy to appear “short circuit”, which leads to the twitching symptoms of facial muscle spasm. The vast majority of patients are caused by this reason. 2.Non vascular compression factors: such as tumors, cysts, granulomas and so on. 3, inflammation: inflammation of the facial nerve is caused. Third, what are the characteristics of the symptoms of facial muscle spasm? 1, paroxysmal: patients with a seizure time ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes, paroxysmal seizures, non-seizure time is the same as a normal person; 2, unilateral: facial muscle spasm is unilateral in the vast majority of cases, and very few have bilateral onset. In the clinic, we sometimes encounter some people come to the consultation, said: doctor, my left eyelid jumped a while ago, and then the right eyelid began to jump. This situation is generally not a manifestation of facial muscle spasm; 3, gradually aggravated: facial muscle spasm with the passage of time convulsive symptoms will generally gradually aggravate. At the beginning of the attack, only a slight eyelid twitching, sometimes need to be carefully observed to detect, gradually progress can appear twitching amplitude becomes larger, higher frequency, and even difficult to open the eyes, the corner of the mouth skewed, seriously affecting the patient’s life, work and sleep. 4, triggering factors: facial muscle spasm is generally easy to appear in the case of tension, fatigue and excessive eye use. Fourth, facial muscle spasm need to do what examination? The diagnosis of facial muscle spasm mainly relies on the doctor’s face to see the symptoms of the patient’s convulsions, it is relatively easy to make a diagnosis. However, in the outpatient clinic, specialists will still give patients a cranial MRI examination, the main purpose is two, one is to clarify the relationship between blood vessels and nerves, showing the type and thickness of blood vessels and the degree of compression on the facial nerve, and the second is to exclude some tumors and other intracranial lesions caused by secondary facial muscle spasm. Hospitals that have the conditions have MRI examination methods specifically for facial muscle spasm – 3D-TOF and FIESTA examination sequences. Tips: Since facial muscle spasm is intermittent attacks, patients may not have convulsive episodes when they come to the outpatient clinic, this time on the doctor’s definitive diagnosis will cause great difficulty, so patients can record a video of a typical facial twitching before the visit to the doctor to see it at a glance. Fifth, in addition to facial muscle spasm, what other diseases can cause eyelid jumping? In the clinic, we will encounter some people because of eyelid jumping for 2-3 days to consult their own is not a disease, and even some people in the consultation before the collection of a bias on the Internet, suspecting that they have a facial muscle spasm, here to tell you, not all eyelid jumping is pathologic (problematic), and not all pathological eyelid jumping is facial muscle spasm (sequelae of facial paralysis, Meijer syndrome and other diseases can also be caused). cause eyelid jumping). If one side of the eyelid jumps recently, first of all, we should think carefully about whether we have excessive eye use, mental stress, poor sleep, etc. If you can try to make some targeted adjustments to ensure adequate sleep, reduce the time of eye use, and many people’s eyelid jumps will generally disappear automatically. If the eyelid jump for 3 months, after rest and adjustment are not significantly alleviated, and even around friends and relatives have pointed out that your twitching problem, you need to pay enough attention to it, it is recommended to the hospital outpatient consultation, so that the doctor to make a judgment. What are the treatments for facial muscle spasm? The treatments available for facial muscle spasm are relatively limited, except for microvascular decompression surgery, which is a “radical” method, other treatments are temporary relief of symptoms. 1, drug treatment: early mild facial muscle spasm can try to use carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine and other drugs, some patients start to use the drug for a period of time is effective, but with the passage of time the effect of the drug gradually weakened or even ineffective. In addition, the side effects of drugs may also make some patients give up this treatment. 2.Botulinum toxin injection treatment: It is mainly applied to patients who cannot tolerate surgery, refuse surgery, fail surgery or relapse after surgery. Most patients are effective for the initial injection of botulinum toxin, and the general efficacy is maintained for about 3 months, and the efficacy is gradually weakened with the increase in the number of injections. At the same time, repeated injections of botulinum toxin can appear irreversible facial paralysis, which should be taken seriously. 3.Microvascular decompression surgery: It is currently recognized by medical experts at home and abroad as the “mainstream method” for the treatment of facial muscle spasm. In terms of pathogenesis, microvascular decompression surgery (MVD) is the only treatment that can cure facial muscle spasm, with an overall effective rate of more than 90%, which is minimally invasive, safe and efficient. 4, Tips: Most of the patients with facial muscle spasm after microvascular decompression surgery will immediately stop twitching, but there are about one-third of the patients are still twitching after the surgery, and it takes a certain amount of time for them to recover, which is clinically referred to as “delayed remission”, and the twitching usually stops 3-6 months after the surgery. If the twitching still exists 1 year after surgery, further treatment is needed. How is microvascular decompression done? A more comprehensive evaluation will be done before the surgery to see if the patient can tolerate the surgery. Surgery needs to be completed under general anesthesia, behind the ear to make a scalp incision of about 5CM long, the skull to open a bone window about the size of a one-dollar coin, operated under the microscope will be pressed on the nerves of the blood vessel separation, and then between the nerves and blood vessels with a special isolation material cushioning to achieve the purpose of the radical cure. Eight, other precautions 1, have facial muscle spasm must go to the regular hospital for consultation and treatment. Don’t listen to biased prescriptions, such as minimally invasive zapping and other treatments don’t believe, don’t use. 2, patients should pay attention to the regularity of life, avoid excessive eye use, mental stress, avoid staying up late.