Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome

Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome, also known as bilateral anterior opercular syndrome is a partial paralysis of the face, pharynx and jaw caused by a loss of blood supply in a specific region of the brain. It was described in 1926 by Charles Foix, Jean Alfred Émile Chavany and Julien Marie in the Revue Neurologique. As a characteristic, there is no paralysis of upper or lower limbs and those affected can still make involuntary movement like smiling, eating or blinking eyes.

Symptoms
Symptoms are drooling, trouble talking, jaw jerks and general weakness in the face.

Causes
The most common cause is stroke, infection of the brain, malformation, degenerative disorder and head trauma.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis is made with CT scan and MRI. Most of the time the lesion is seen on both side of the brain, in the Operculum. This part of the brain contains Broca's area, which plays an important role in conversation or speech production, reading and writing.