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Blink reflex excitability cycle in hemifacial spasm

Servei de Neurologia, Hospital Clinic i Provincial, Barcelona, Spain.

We studied electrically elicited blink reflex responses in patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS) by applying single isolated, as well as paired (conditioning and test), stimuli at both sides of the face. Responses after single stimuli were of larger size on the side of the spasm compared with the uninvolved side and controls. With paired stimuli, the inhibitory effect of the conditioning stimuli upon the test stimuli late response (R2), which was always observed in normals, was significantly less pronounced at short interstimuli intervals. This resulted in an enhanced recovery curve of R2, which was observed on the side of the spasm and the contralateral, clinically normal side. Patients with longer disease duration showed more striking abnormalities of the recovery curve. We suggest that there is enhanced excitability of facial motoneurons and of those brainstem interneurons that mediate the blink reflex pathway in patients with HFS.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Valls-Sole, Unitat d'EMG, Servei de Neurologia, Hospital Clinic i Provincial, Villarroel 170, Barcelona (08036) España.

Received November 29, 1988. Accepted for publication in final form March 9, 1989.

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