Moebius Syndrome Definition, Reason, Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention
Definition
Moebius syndrome is a very rare congenital or congenital disease. This nerve disorder causes a condition of weakness or paralysis or unresponsiveness that occurs in several facial nerves.
Abnormalities usually occur in the VII and VI nerves. As a result of this weak condition, sufferers cannot reveal facial expressions such as smiling, frowning, puckering their lips, raising their eyebrows or closing their eyelids. Sufferers are also generally unable to move the eyes laterally or outward. Therefore, sufferers are often said to have faces like statues.
Moebius Syndrome Symptom
The symptoms that arise from Moebius syndrome depend on the facial nerve that is affected. In disorders of the VIIth facial nerve, sufferers cannot express facial expressions such as smiling, frowning, puckering their lips, raising their eyebrows or closing their eyelids. In facial VI nerve disorders, the patient cannot move the eyes to the lateral or outer side.
Other symptoms can be abnormalities in the extremities or limbs which are also called Poland’s syndrome. Other symptoms that can also appear include:
- eating disorders, swallowing, and susceptibility to choking
- tilts head back to swallow
- sensitive eyes because you can’t squint or even corneal ulcers because your eyes stay open when you sleep
- there is a delay in motor development such as crawling due to upper body weakness
- no eye movement blink
- strabismus or squint
- drooling or drooling
- small chin (micrognathia), small mouth (microstomia)
- high palate
- short or deformed tongue, limited tongue movement, cleft palate
- there is a problem with the teeth
- small auricles (microtia) or none at all (anotia), have hearing loss
- have speech or articulation disorders
- There are minor facial midline abnormalities
- club feet or Congenital Talipes Equino-varus (CTEV)
- there are deformities of the hands or feet such as syndactyly
- scoliosis
- there is an abnormality of the chest muscles and breasts on one side of the body
Nearly 30 percent of sufferers will usually also be on the autistic spectrum or have a minor intellectual disability.
Moebius Syndrome Reason
The exact cause of Moebius syndrome is still unknown. It seems that this disease occurs randomly or randomly. In some cases, there appears to be an association between family history and the occurrence of this syndrome. So, there is a possibility that this syndrome is also caused by genetic disorders.
It is also known that the genetic disorder is inherited in a dominant manner. This means that if one parent has the syndrome, the chance that the child will have the same syndrome is about 50 percent.
Another hypothesis states that the cause of Moebius syndrome is ischemia (lack or interruption of blood flow) to the fetus or fetus in the womb. Ischemia can be caused by environmental factors. So most likely the cause of Moebius syndrome is a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
The probability of occurrence of this disease is two to 20 per 1 million people. The number of cases between men and women is equally probable.
Moebius Syndrome Diagnosis
The symptoms and severity of Moebius syndrome vary. Diagnostic criteria for Moebius syndrome include:
- weakness or paralysis of one side or both sides of the face (VII nerve)
- weakness or paralysis of lateral eye movements (VI nerve)
- persistence of eye movement only in the vertical direction
Moebius Syndrome Treatment
Treatment of Moebius syndrome usually requires the involvement of doctors from a variety of specialists, including pediatricians, neurologists, plastic surgeons, ENT specialists, ophthalmologists, orthopedics, dentists, speech therapists, and other specialists. Handling of sufferers also depends on the disorder experienced.
For facial nerve disorders, corrective surgery will be performed by removing muscle or nerve grafts from other areas of the face or body. One example is the transfer of the temporalis tendon to the corner of the mouth. If paralysis occurs on one side of the face, a cross-facial nerve graft from the normal side to the abnormal side can be performed.
The newest procedure that can be done is smile surgery. This action involves the microvascular transfer of a muscle from the thigh (gracilis) to the face and connecting the nerves that normally control the masseter muscle for chewing. The operation has shown good results in speech and facial movement.
Dry eye lubrication should be done frequently. Physical therapy for patients with limb disorders is also usually a priority for treatment. Other therapies that are also useful, such as occupational and speech therapy are generally also very necessary.
Prevention
Effective prevention cannot be done because the exact cause of this syndrome is still unknown.