[Childhood facial paralysis due to tumours (author's transl)]

Facial nerve palsy due to malignant tumours is uncommon in childhood and adolescence. If present the malignancy may be primary or metastatic, and usually brain tumours, leukaemias, or lymphosarcomas are found. Rhabdomyosarcomas, parotid malignancies, Ewing's sarcomas, Wilms' tumours and neuroblastomas are rare. The nerve lesion may be due to direct tumour infiltration, external pressure on the nerve and secondary ischaemia. In disseminated malignancy the lesion is usually due to extending intraneural infiltration and all parts of the nerve may be affected. If facial nerve palsy coexists the prognosis in childhood malignancies is extremely poor.