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Updated: Aug 1, 2026

Single-stage Dynamic Reanimation of the Smile in Irreversible Facial Paralysis by Free Functional Muscle Transfer
Published on: March 1, 2015
My cheek puff sign: Bell's palsy, Charles Bell and Dr Robert Knox
180 Whitehouse Rd, Cramond, Edinburgh EH4 6PD, UK,
Abstract:
Bell's palsy fully recovers in the great majority of cases. What may not be sufficiently appreciated is how distressing it can be. This Perspective recounts a personal experience; describes an unrecorded puzzling physical sign; and details the interest the experience generated in Charles Bell and in the infamous Robert Knox, whose paths crossed. Both deserve to be better known than just for a palsy or a murder-for-bodies scandal. Bell made a seminal contribution to neurophysiology, regarded by some as important as Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. He was also a very accomplished artist, his paintings of wounded soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars among the best-ever artistic depictions of the mutilations of war. Knox published seven books and over 100 scientific papers and is a more multidimensional and interesting character than popularly portrayed.
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