Diplejia facial: Variante regional del Síndrome de Guillian-Barré

Abstract

Facial palsy is a uncommon clinical manifestation that it can be caused by different ethiologies. We show a patient with a chronic periodontal disease who presented a sudden facial palsy, initially in left-face but it becomes bilateral quickly. In few days he associated paresthesias in his right arm and hiporreflexia. These clinical findings with albumin-citological dissociation, they had allowed to establish the diagnosis of regional variant of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (SGB). Facial diplejia is an idiopathic manifestation in 25% of patients, and this is the most common cause. However, facial diplejia can be secondary to many ethiologies as SGB. The affectation of facial nerve associated to other motor symptoms in SGB is frequent, but it is not frequent the presentation as facial diplejia alone. In conclusion, it is necessary a high clinical suspicion to do a lumbar punction (PL) and MRI to reject neoplasic pathologies and to obtain a diagnosis and an adequatted treatment. Copyright © 2007 Aran Ediciones, S.L.