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Case Reports
. 2020 Feb 20;13(2):e233728.
doi: 10.1136/bcr-2019-233728.

Post-traumatic bilateral longitudinal temporal bone fracture with bilateral facial nerve palsy: a rare case

Kappagantu Krishna Medha  1 , Manish Gupta  1 , Monica Gupta  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Post-traumatic bilateral longitudinal temporal bone fracture with bilateral facial nerve palsy: a rare case

Kappagantu Krishna Medha et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

Facial paralysis is a potentially disabling complication of temporal bone fractures. Although unilateral palsy is commonly encountered, bilateral facial nerve palsy is rare, especially in post-traumatic situations. Other recognised causes of bilateral facial palsy are neurologic, infectious, neoplastic, idiopathic or metabolic disorders. A 25-year-old male patient presented with difficulty in talking, eating and closing eyes for 15 days since a post-vehicular accident. CT of skull showed bilateral longitudinal temporal bone fractures. Bilateral facial palsy was confirmed by clinical and topodiagnostic tests. Patient was given a course of steroids which led to an early improvement on left side followed by a delayed right-sided improvement at 6 months.

Keywords: ear, nose and throat/otolaryngology; neurological injury; trauma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Clinical picture of patient with inability to close eyes on maximal effort.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Axial section of high resolution computed tomogram temporal bone, showing both right (black solid arrows) and left side longitudinal fracture (red solid arrows).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Clinical picture of same patient showing left facial recovery with deviation of mouth to left.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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