A Case of Facial Nerve Palsy Associated with Epstein-Barr Virus Infection in a Child.

Lee,  Hae Kyoung; Kim,  Sang Beom; Oh,  Chang Hee; Kim,  Je Woo; Yun,  He Sun; Hwang,  Seong Hee; Song,  Won Keun

Case Report

Journal of the Korean Child Neurology Society 2000;8(2):337-341.
Published online December 30, 2000.

A Case of Facial Nerve Palsy Associated with Epstein-Barr Virus Infection in a Child.

Hae Kyoung Lee, Sang Beom Kim, Chang Hee Oh, Je Woo Kim, He Sun Yun, Seong Hee Hwang, Won Keun Song

¹Department of Pediatrics, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Neurology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
³Department of Clinical Pathology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Facial palsy is a rare complication of infectious mononucleosis of Epstein-Barr virus infection, which can be easily overlooked by clinicians if one is unnoticed about it. We report a 2 year and 11 month old boy who was diagnosed by facial nerve palsy caused by Epstein-Barr virus infection. Pseudothrombocytopenia was also associated with him. Steroid (prednisolone 2mg/kg) was administered daily for 2 weeks and then maintained with alternative tapering schedule (2mg/kg at once QOD) in order to decompress facial nerve. He was completely recovered at 2 months of follow-up.

Key Words: Facial palsy, Epstein-Barr virus, Infection, Child