{"id":10393,"date":"2025-09-24T17:44:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=10393"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T22:44:09","slug":"infectious-mimics-of-bells-palsy-facial-nerve-palsy-due-to-lyme-neuroborreliosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/09\/24\/infectious-mimics-of-bells-palsy-facial-nerve-palsy-due-to-lyme-neuroborreliosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Infectious Mimics of Bell&#8217;s Palsy: Facial Nerve Palsy Due to Lyme Neuroborreliosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cureus.com\/articles\/408543-infectious-mimics-of-bells-palsy-facial-nerve-palsy-due-to-lyme-neuroborreliosis?score_article=true#!\/\">Cureus<\/a> Facial nerve palsy (FNP) is a common neurological disorder. There are multiple causes of FNP, and Bell\u2019s palsy is defined as an idiopathic cause of FNP. If a patient presents with facial palsy, a full investigation workup should be performed. Lyme disease can present with erythema migrans, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and facial palsy. We present a case of a 47-year-old man who presented with progression from unilateral to bilateral FNP. After a series of investigations, he was diagnosed with LNB. Even if MRI findings are normal, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and Lyme serology (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay followed by Western blot) in serum and\/or CSF can confirm the diagnosis of neuroborreliosis. We have administered the patient IV ceftriaxone 2 g daily, as per the guidelines. He showed gradual improvement in FNP from House-Brackmann Grade V to Grade II on subsequent follow-ups. This case emphasizes the importance of broad clinical evaluation in diagnosing FNP. Early detection of LNB and initiation of treatment can ensure patients have a favorable outcome.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: none;\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" title=\"yXCRqRXUcO  z Fw\">yXCRqRXUcO  z Fw<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cureus Facial nerve palsy (FNP) is a common neurological disorder. There are multiple causes of FNP, and Bell\u2019s palsy is defined as an idiopathic cause of FNP. If a patient presents with facial palsy, a full investigation workup should be performed. Lyme disease can present with erythema migrans, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tick-bourne-diseases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10394,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10393\/revisions\/10394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}