Facial diplegia during pregnancy

BACKGROUND: Facial diplegia is a rare event, most commonly of unknown origi n. We report the case of a woman who presented bilateral Bell's palsy a few days after a normal delivery. CASE REPORT: Five days after the delivery of a gemellar pregnancy, a 34-yea r old woman developed complete bilateral facial palsy. No treatment was ini tially prescribed. She was first seen in our department two weeks after the onset of her illness. The diagnostic work-up was negative and we considere d that our patient had bilateral Bell's palsy. Treatment with methylprednis olone and intravenous acyclovir, initiated since admission, have had very l imited effect. DISCUSSION: As has already been shown for facial palsy, idiopathic facial d iplegia, although exceptional, seems to be more frequent during the last tr imester of pregnancy and in the early puerperium. Seven cases have been rep orted in the literature over the last 30 years. We discuss here the pathoph ysiology.