Iatrogenic Hemifacial Spasm? Does Botulinic Toxic works?

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I know each person is different in the cause, severity and treatment response. I will share my experience, in hopes it will give you another perspective and possibly some hope. I was diagnosis with HFS approx 4 years ago. It was the HFS that lead them to discovering my meningioma brain tumor. This tumor is growing around my facial and auditory nerves. My symptoms began as simple as a little eye twitch and progressed to very strong facial 'contractions'. During my frequent and random 24/7 spasms, my eye completely clamps shut, my cheek pulls up, my mouth does the full 'Elvis' look, my neck is pulled and strained, etc.While having these spasms, I am unable to talk, eat, etc. as the spasms are very strong. I started Botox treatments about 1.5 yrs ago. My injections have only been focussed around my eye area. my neurologist has advised my that it is not beneficial to do this in other areas of the face as it can create permanent muscle loss in some cases. These eye injections have been hit and miss at first, meaning the Dr may need to try it in another spot in order to locate the exact spots. For me, this treatment has been a huge relief. It allows me to continue to function without losing my right eye vision during the spasms. I did have just one experimental injection in my cheek about a year ago, however I will not be doing that again, as it took away my cheek muscle and ability to smile. Since this one cheek injection was done, my muscle movement is slowly getting better, with additional recent trial treatments from a specialized face physiotherapist. I will definitely continue with my Botox injections around my eye. I receive these every 2-3 months.

I hope this helps you. I wish you all the best.

Hi Diego, I am so sorry that your spasms were caused by some sort of trauma rather than the more usual cause (which is a compression of the 7th cranial nerve by a vein or artery). I don't honestly know the answer to your question but I agree with the other response that Botulinum Toxin is not a precise science and the doctor or practitioner needs to try different doses to see what works for you. I found it very helpful in the correct dose around my eye but I did not like the effect on the rest of my face. When I had too high a dose it made the whole side of my face freeze so that I couldn't smile or even talk properly any more. My best advice would be to ask your doctor to increase the dose around your eye, but only little by little (no heavy doses!). I wish you well and hope that you can get some improvements. Very best wishes, Roseann

PS You might also like to join the Facebook group Hemifacial Spasm International Support Group where there is a lot of experience and expertise.

GeeMGee, you left me worried. You say that as a result of a wrong injection around your cheek, you recovered movement very slowly. How slowly? I thought that in that cases, you would recover all your movement in 2-3 months.

Does Botox totally fix your problem between injection and injection? Thanks you two for answering.