Facial nerve akinesia

In ophthalmology, increasing attention has been directed to methods of local anesthesia and akinesia that provide complete analgesia and immobilization of the eye conducive to work with the surgical microscope, particularly in operations for cataracts. The volume of anesthetic agent often used to achieve these goals may approach the toxic level of the drug in some patients. A method of producing akinesia of the temporal, zygomatic, and buccal divisions of the facial nerve that requires only a small volume of anesthetic is described. In our experience, this method can, in many cases, provide akinesia of the orbicularis oculi equal in effect to some established methods of infiltrative akinesia that require large doses of anesthetic.