Bilateral peripheral facial palsy: A rare case report

Abstract

Peripheral facial palsy (PFP) is an inflammation of the facial nerve, which paralyses the face unilaterally or bilaterally, causing pain and discomfort to the patient. PFP affects the lives of compromised individuals not only due to the loss of essential facial functions (smiling, blinking, talking) but also their emotional state. When the face is paralysed, the lost ability to animate the face can be devastating and is often associated with depression, social isolation, and reduced quality of life. Bilateral involvement is extremely rare and as it occurs in unilateral cases, a thorough clinical and laboratory evaluation must be carried out to determine the etiology of the disease, which can be idiopathic, infectious, neoplastic, traumatic, or iatrogenic. In addition to these, in times of the pandemic, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the vaccine against it should be considered as possible causal factors. Drug therapy and physiotherapy are indicated to recover facial movements. The aim of the present study was to report a case of bilateral peripheral facial palsy due to herpes simplex virus reactivation in a 20-year-old female patient.