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Medical Treatment of Hemifacial Spasm and Other Involuntary Facial Movement Disorders

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Abstract

Usually, medical treatment of facial involuntary disorders is prone to be neglected compared to surgical or botulinum toxin application. However, there might also be patients who are not suitable candidate for surgical treatment or who might refuse botulinum toxin treatment. Therefore, clinicians should be aware of alternative medical options for managing involuntary facial movement disorders including hemifacial spasm, blepharospasm, and so on. Although, most medical treatments for facial movement disorders are empirical and lack solid evidence, there are many case reports showing good efficacy in many intractable cases. In this chapter, we will review these kinds of case reports and plausible medical options. Furthermore, we will also review basic mechanism and pharmacologic characteristics of botulinum toxin.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Gangneung Asan Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Gangneung, Republic of Korea

    Wooyoung Jang

  2. Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyukwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jinyoung Youn

  3. Neuroscience Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Jinyoung Youn

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  1. Wooyoung Jang
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  2. Jinyoung Youn
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Correspondence to Wooyoung Jang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Kwan Park

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Konkuk University School of Medicine Chungju Hospital, Chungju, Korea (Republic of)

    Jae Sung Park

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Jang, W., Youn, J. (2020). Medical Treatment of Hemifacial Spasm and Other Involuntary Facial Movement Disorders. In: Park, K., Park, J.S. (eds) Hemifacial Spasm. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5417-9_14

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