Central nervous system involvement in patients with facial palsy due to borrelial infection |
| |
Authors: | K Engervall B Carlsson-Nordlander G Bredberg |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Otolaryngology, S?dersjukhuset, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. |
| |
Abstract: | Patients with a peripheral facial palsy due to an underlying Ixodes-borne borreliosis often have cerebrospinal fluid findings indicating meningeal involvement. The aim of the present study was to identify signs of CNS involvement by means of brain-stem evoked response audiometry (BSER) in patients with a facial palsy due to borreliosis, as well as in patients with a facial palsy of unknown aetiology. Bell's palsy. Abnormalities in BSER were found to be significantly more common along the borrelial patients. Furthermore, a reversal of these abnormalities following treatment with benzyl-penicillin was found in the majority of patients with borreliosis. The results of the present study emphasize the importance of diagnosing and treating an underlying borreliosis in patients with a peripheral facial palsy. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|