UAB has a large Facial Nerve Clinic that treats patients with acquired facial nerve palsies and the associated difficulties of swallowing/speaking, and visual field defects from ptosis (a drooping or falling of the upper eyelid) and synkinesis (unwanted contractions of the muscles of the face during attempted movement.). Commonly, patients will experience involuntary eyelid contraction with oral movements like smiling. For eyelid synkinesis causing significant aesthetic or functional difficulty, surgery or botox is often the first line treatment. However, not all patients desire this, and some are poor surgical candidates due to other comorbidities. Botox has been shown to work well for these patients, but can be only partially effective. In addition, patients experience a wearing off period between treatments.~Several eye drops are available for the medical treatment of ptosis, including apraclonidine and 0.1% oxymetazoline. Both are alpha 2 adrenergic agonists, which stimulates Mullers muscle, causing muscle contraction and upper eyelid lifting. In addition, apraclonidine has been shown to be beneficial in patients with blepharospasm in a pilot study by Vijayakumar et. al.~We hypothesize that patients with synkinesis, similar to patients with ptosis and blepharospasm, could have symptomatic improvement with apraclonidine use.~Our study will initially be a pilot study, designed similarly to the Vijayakumar study. If this shows improvement for these patients, our hope is to pursue a randomized control trial.
The purpose of this study is to determine efficacy of apraclonidine for patients with ocular synkinesis, who are seen in the UAB Facial Nerve Clinic.