Familial recurrent Bell's palsy with ocular motor palsies

We studied a family in which the father and 7 of 10 children had episodes of Bell's palsy. Five of the eight affected family members also had ocular motor palsies. Facial nerve and blink reflex studies in four affected siblings demonstrated asymmetrically reduced amplitude of evoked responses without delayed conduction. EMG revealed signs of chronic denervation and reinnervation in all four patients; two had synkinesis. Three siblings had diabetes mellitus, but with no clinically evident polyneuropathy.