[Facial paralysis and tuberculous otitis. Significance of early neural decompression]

Facial paralyses associated with tuberculous otitis have consistently had a bad prognosis. This is bound up with delay in diagnosing the tuberculous nature of the lesions and with slow-acting medical treatment. The facial nerve must be decompressed immediately and not delayed until medical treatment has failed. This attitude is particularly necessary in two types of circumstances in which the tuberculous origin should be under suspicion as a matter of routine / firstly when facial paralysis appears in the secondary sequelae of ear surgery and, secondly, when facial paralysis is a complication in chronic otitis without cholesteatoma.