동시에 양측성으로 발생한 벨마비 1예

Bilateral simultaneous facial palsy is defined a facial paralysis involving both sides of the face within 4 weeks. It is an extremely rare disease with an annual incidence of about 1 per 5 million people, and it is less than 1% as frequent as the unilateral form. In contrast to unilateral facial palsy, the causes of bilateral facial palsy include a variety of systemic diseases including neurological, infectious, metabolic, vascular, neoplastic and degenerative disorders. Since these systemic diseases are life threatening, it is important to establish early and definite diagnoses. When the definitive cause of facial palsy is not found with careful history taking and comprehensive examinations, it is diagnosed as Bell’s palsy. We report herein a case of bilateral simultaneous Bell’s palsy that showed a good prognosis. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2009;20:235-238)