Facial Nerve Conduction after Sclerotherapy in Children with Facial Lymphatic Malformations: Report of Two Cases

Case Report

Facial Nerve Conduction after Sclerotherapy in Children with Facial Lymphatic Malformations: Report of Two Cases

PEI-JUNG LIN,¹ YUH-CHERNG GUO,^2,4 JAN-YOU LIN^3,4 and YU-TANG CHANG^3,4

¹Department of Neurology, E-Da Hospital and I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
²Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
³Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
⁴Faculty of Medical School, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Surgical excision is thought to be the standard treatment of choice for lymphatic malformations. However, when the lesions are limited to the face only, surgical scar and facial nerve injury may impair cosmetics and facial expression. Sclerotherapy, an injection of a sclerosing agent directly through the skin into a lesion, is an alternative method. By evaluating facial nerve conduction, we observed the long-term effect of facial lymphatic malformations after intralesional injection of OK-432 and correlated the findings with anatomic outcomes. One 12-year-old boy with a lesion over the right-side preauricular area adjacent to the main trunk of facial nerve and the other 5-year-old boy with a lesion in the left-sided cheek involving the buccinator muscle were enrolled. The follow-up data of more than one year, including clinical appearance, computed tomography (CT) scan and facial nerve evaluation were collected. The facial nerve conduction study was normal in both cases. Blink reflex in both children revealed normal results as well. Complete resolution was noted on outward appearance and CT scan. The neurophysiologic data were compatible with good anatomic and functional outcomes. Our report suggests that the inflammatory reaction of OK-432 did not interfere with adjacent facial nerve conduction.

keywords —— lymphatic malformation; OK-432; sclerotherapy; facial nerve conduction; children

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2007, 211, 401-406

Correspondence: Yu-Tang Chang, M.D., Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, 100 Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan.

e-mail: 890300@ms.kmuh.org.tw