Defining functional limitation, disability, and societal limitations in patients with facial paresis: initial pilot questionnaire.

Experiences with patients with facial paralysis over the last 25 years and recent efforts to develop objective measures of paresis and synkinesis led us to three hypotheses: (a) dysfunction in certain regions of the face is more disturbing than that in others, (b) there are major psychosocial impacts of facial paralysis, and (c) the impact of facial paralysis is underestimated. An initial questionnaire of 10 open-ended items was submitted to 11 subjects stabilized after acoustic tumor resection. Responses were tabulated qualitatively, and frequency counts were made of responses. These results show that the region of the face that is most disturbing is the mouth; however, early in the time course of paralysis, the eye is most disturbing. Synkinesis above the eye is ultimately more disturbing than paresis in that region, and it may worsen. Major psychosocial impacts of paralysis appear common and underestimated. These pilot data qualitatively support the hypotheses.