More than 50% of peripheral facial paralysis are idiopathic (Bell’s palsy). Second frequent reason thought to be trauma (aproximately 20%) and the infection as the third.
Postoperative facial paralysis is a rare condition that can appear probably due to compression to nerve upon mechanical stress or distention of nerve during mask ventilation via mask or due to patient positio-ning. Intraoperative hypotension, hypovolemia, hypoxia, electrolyte imbalance are other risk factors.
A 38-year-old American Society of Anesthesiology Classification. (ASA I) woman was scheduled for hysteros-copy due to endometrial polyp. Patient was operated with general anesthesia via larengeal mask. After recovery patient complained about facial paresthaesia. It was defined that patient could not lift the right eyebrow and right nasolabial fold was erased and rest of the branches of facial nerve and other cranial ner-ves were normal. Distal facial nerve paralysis was diagnosed after neurological consultation. Patient fully recovered in three weeks after medical treatment.
In this case there was no difficult mask ventilation and patient was in supine position. Also there was no any other reason give rise to facial paralysis during surgery. When patient questioned in detailed she complai-ned prodromal earache one day before the operation. We believe that facial paralysis coincided with the operation, factors of general anesthesia and surgical stress increased the severity of this pathology that had already been in development process.
Keywords: General Anesthesia, Fascial Nerve, Paraliysis
