Morphological changes in support mechanism of superficial face layers in Moebius syndrome

Moebius syndrome, also called congenital facial paralysis is a rare neurological disease, whose etiology is not fully elucidated. It affects especially facial and oculomotor cranial nerves and its clinical feature is peripheral facial paralysis. The objective of the study is to highlight the anatomical and functional changes in the Moebius syndrome and establish certain criteria that should be the basis for reparative surgery in this disease. For this purpose, we used a group of six patients diagnosed with this pathology, in whom we pursued functional anatomical and histological changes of the superficial layers of the face that we have grouped in terms of their clinical impact. All the data obtained were centralized in order to assess anatomical functional changes occurring after evolution in time of lesions caused by Moebius syndrome. The results of the study led us to conclude that the face is made up of three main regions - median, medial and lateral -, which behave differently both in atresia of the facial nerve and in healthy individuals. This has an important echo on the way we emphasized the functional anatomy of superficial layers of the face and in surgery.