Review of a series with abducens nerve palsy

In this report, we aimed to investigate the patients that presented at our clinic complaint with diplopia due to the abducens nerve palsy and neurosurgical disease.

The study design was a retrospective review of ten cases with the abducens nerve palsy. The causes of the abducens nerve paralysis of our patients were as follows: two cases with head trauma, three cases with pituitary tumors, one case with sphenoid sinus mucocele, one case with greater superficial petrosal nerve cellular schwannoma at the petrous apex, one case with hypertensive intraventricular hemmorhage, one case with hydrocephalus, and one case with parotid tumor and skull base/brain stem invasion.

Depending on the location of the lesion, the symptoms due to nuclear damage showed no improvement as in our case with adenocarcinoma of the parotid gland. The lesions sited at the subarachnoid portion of the abducens nerve or in the cavernous sinus, the abducens nerve palsy improved or botilinum injection was performed during recovery period.

We presented abducens nerve palsy cases due to neruosurgical disorders. A botilinum injection was performed in three patients with the abducens palsy. Botilinum injection can help patients with sixth nerve palsy during the recovery period.