Chances for recovery from facial nerve trauma & paralysis

[sharpmama]

My 12 year old grandson suffered a blow to the left side of his head, near the ear two months ago in a surfing accident. He received numerous stitches, and it resulted in paralysis on the left side of his face. His forehead, eye and mouth noticeably droop. About a 10 days after his accident, he underwent a number of tests to determine whether the nerve had been transected or was still intact. Fortunately, it was still intact. When he and his parents saw the specialist again, maybe 3-4 weeks ago, the doctor definitely saw some improvement, but to us, it seems to be very slow in coming. (I am not sure if there was more testing after the initial round).

One of the technicians doing the testing said to my son that "if there will be improvement in the nerve function, that most of it would usually comes within 8 weeks of the injury."

My son is now despairing of his son's recovery of function, since it has been not nearly what we had hoped after two months. He still does not have his blink reflex, and his mouth is still very droopy.

My question is this: Was this technician correct? Isn't it wrong for a technician to give their opinion or information such as this to a patient?

And, if this two-month curve is true, is there anything that can be done to correct the function of my grandson's paralysis?

Thank you for any insight on this.

[sharpmama]

Thank you so much for the answer. He has had the EMG and Nerve conduction studies at least once, perhaps twice. As I said, I think he had a CT scan, but it's possible it was an MRI.

I am not sure what kind of specialist he's been seeing, whether an ENT, a neurologist or perhaps a neurosurgeon? But I am sure he's being seen by a doctor who specializes in this type of facial nerve trauma.

I would think that botulism wouldn't be of much help in his situation as I thought it works to relax muscles... so that confuses me.

Thank you for your answer.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine him I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that he needs, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about his health concern.

Though it is not a life threatening condition, it is essential that a neurologist needs to be immediately consulted who would like to conduct electromyography (EMG test), nerve conduction studies and MRI to find out the extent and cause.  Most of the doctors suggest steroids, anti-retroviral medicines, botulism injection and physiotherapy to recover from the condition. Therefore, I would recommend him to show a neurologist who can evaluate the details of his case and could better determine the insight of the situation. Hope this helps.