inpaPeripheral Facial Nerve Palsy after Adenotonsillectomy with Lidocaine Injection in the Peritonsillar Area: A Case Report

Local anesthetic injection at the surgical site in tonsillectomy is a commonly used method to reduce pain and bleeding postoperatively. Rare cases of transient facial nerve palsy due to local anesthesia have been reported, which are presumed to be a result of the local anesthetic infiltrating around the facial nerve trunk through the superior constrictor muscle. The authors experienced transient facial nerve palsy in a 6-year-old boy after tonsillectomy. In the recovery room, the patient could not wrinkle the right side of his forehead and completely close his eyes. The patient showed symptoms of peripheral facial nerve palsy that were equivalent to House-Brackmann grade (HB Gr) V. In this case, the patient showed improvement to HB Gr II after approximately 1 hour and complete recovery after 3 hours from the onset of symptoms. Here, we present the case and a review of the literature. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2014;25:172–175)