Facial, head and neck disorders
Trigeminal neuralgia:
• attacks of brief lancinating pain in distribution of 5th cranial nerve; attacks last from a few seconds to minutes
• pain precipitated by some stimulus (eg talking, chewing)
• common in older persons
• treatment – carbamazepine
Bell’s palsy:
• unilateral facial paralysis of acute onset and unknown cause – any age, but mostly young adults. M>F.
• due to inflammation of facial nerve within stylomastoid foramen
• often awake in morning and is face paralysed – mouth drawn to one side. Pain in ear, mastoid region or angle of jaw common
• most recover completely within a few months – permanent paralysis is rare
• analgesics in early stages if painful
Meniere’s syndrome/disease:
• recurrent attacks of severe giddiness, associated with vomiting, tinnitus and increasing deafness
• M>F. Average age of onset = 49yrs
• due to gross dilation of the endolymph system of inner ear
• usually present with history of progressive deafness and tinnitus and a sudden attack of giddiness – vomiting soon develops. During attack unstable and staggers. More comfortable to lie on side, with affected side up
• attacks recur at irregular intervals
• treatment during attack – bed rest, sedatives (especially those used for motion sickness, eg Stemetil)
• phenobarbitone for prevention
We have not yet got to this page. We will eventually. Please contact us if you have something to contribute to it or sign up for our newsletter or like us on Facebook and Instagram or follow us on Twitter. |
Page last updated:
Comments are closed.