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Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
2016 , Vol 62 , Num 1
Bilateral facial paralysis in a patient with B-cell low grade lymphoma and its rehabilitation
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Medical Faculty of Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey DOI : 10.5152/tftrd.2015.32068 Simultaneous bilateral facial paralysis is an uncommon condition. It may be idiopathic or associated with various disorders including Lyme disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome, sarcoidosis, viral infections, syphilis, pontine gliomas, and leukemia. A 63-year-old male was admitted to the Hematology clinic with a complete blood count showing excessive leukocytosis and a two-week history of right-sided complete facial weakness. On the seventh day of hospitalization, he also developed facial weakness on the left side. The patient with a diagnosis of bilateral peripheral facial paralysis was referred to the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department. He was started on a rehabilitation program including electrotherapy, manual massage, and exercise. Galvanic current was applied to the facial muscles of both sides as three sessions per week. After 12 sessions of electrotherapy, daily massage, and exercise for four weeks, a significant improvement was achieved on both sides in terms of sensation and facial muscle strength. Further improvement was noted at 12 weeks during follow-up. In this report, we present an extremely rare case of bilateral peripheral facial paralysis due to B-cell low grade lymphoma and the improvement with electrotherapy and rehabilitation techniques. Keywords : Facial paralysis; lymphoma; rehabilitation