Hemipacial spasm

Hemifacial spasm is a distressing symptom with unilateral involuntary paroxysmal twitching of the facial muscles. Eight cases of hemifacial spasm are the subject of this study, all in the fifth and sixth decades of their life, with their main complaint being the spasm of facial muscles on one side two cases having associated trigeminal neuralgia on the same side and in one patient lower motor facial palsy was found. All of the patients underwent C.T. scanning to show normal findings except for two patients, who had nonenhancing low density masses in the ipsilateral cerebello- pontine region. All the patients were operated upon through a retromastoid craniectomy with the removalof the offending lesion to the facial nerve using the microneurosurgical techniques of dissection, exploration of the nerve, and its decompression achieving a good overall result