Assessment and outcome measurement in peripheral facial palsy management and rehabilitation.

Abstract

Peripheral facial palsy (PFP) is a condition characterised by muscle weakness on one or both sides of the face due to a lower motor neuron lesion of the facial nerve (Kim and Lee 2020). The facial nerve has motor, sensory, and parasympathetic fibers (Cuenca-Martinez et al. 2020), and its diverse functions include innervation of the facial muscles, taste sensitivity of the anterior two-thirds of the tongue and innervating the lacrimal, sublingual and submandibular glands (Finsterer 2008). Therefore, PFP is associated with a variety of symptoms including facial asymmetry at rest and during movement (Nakano et al. 2024), ocular symptoms (Lee and Lew 2019), difficulties with secretion management, eating, drinking and communication (Moverare et al. 2017; Venables et al. 2019) as well as facial discomfort due to synkinesis (Zubler et al. 2024). In turn, these symptoms can cause psychological distress, anxiety, depression and diminished quality of life (Cuenca-Martinez et al. 2020). Thus, early and accurate assessment and diagnosis of facial palsy and its impact, as well as thorough evaluation of the psychological impact is critical to guide appropriate management, reduce risk to health and support patient’s quality of life and daily functioning (Cuenca-Martinez et al. 2020; Luu et al. 2021). A review was undertaken by Tedeschi et al. (2024) to identify and validate the most effective tools and scales for assessing the severity of PFP and the associated disability. By doing this, the authors hoped to enhance assessment accuracy, guide effective rehabilitation and improve patient outcomes.