Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about facial nerve palsy.

Then you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash facial nerve palsy

or in the neurology section of the second edition of the zero to finals medicine

book and you can find flashcards and questions to train your knowledge on this content

and help you remember the information for longer at members.0.0.com. So let's get straight into it.

Facial nerve palsy refers to isolated dysfunction in the facial nerve nerve and it presents with unilateral facial weakness, with weakness of the facial muscles on one side.

Let's talk about the facial nerve pathway.

The facial nerve exits the brain stem at the cerebellopontyne angle.

On its journey to the face, it passes through the temporal bone and the parotid gland.

It then divides into five branches. the temporal branch, the zygomatic

branch, the buckle branch, the marginal mandibular branch, and the cervical branch. Let's talk about

the function of the facial nerve. The motor function of the facial nerve

controls facial expression, the stapidious muscle in the inner ear, and the posterior digastric

stylohyoid and platisma muscles. The facial nerve provides sensory function for taste from the anterior two-thirds of the

tongue, and it provides the parasympathetic supply to the submandibular and sublingual

saliva glands and the lacrimal gland

stimulating tear production.

Next let's talk about a very important task

which is differentiating between

upper and lower facial nerve lesions.

It's essential to differentiate between upper motor

...