Central facial palsy revisited: a clinical-radiological study

We investigated the pattern of volitional facial motor deficits in acute stroke patients. We assessed the strength of single facial movements and correlated it to the site of infarct classified on computed tomography scans. Exclusion criteria were previous stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, and subcortical stroke. Results showed that weakness in eyelid closure was associated with anterior cerebral artery (ACA) stroke. Weakness in lip opening was associated with middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke. We suggest that sparing of upper facial movements in MCA stroke is due to the presence of an upper face motor representation in both the MCA and ACA territories. ANN