Facial nerve pathology

This paper reports MR imaging and CT used in 13 cases of facial neuromas and eight simulating lesions. On MR imaging, facial neuromas has long T1 and long T2 characteristics. In a 4-year-old girl with congenital facial palsy, CT and MR imaging demonstrated a facial neuroma involving the entire intratemporal segment of the facial nerve, including massive involvement of the greater superficial petrosal nerve extending into the vidian canal. A primary chemodectoma of the facial nerve (enhanced after administration of gadolinium) was identical to the facial neuroma on CT scans and MR images. Perineural metastatic lesions could not be differentiated from facial neuromas. Isolated granulomas of the facial nerve had CT findings similar to those of a facial neuroma