Hemifacial spasm is a nervous system disorder in which the muscles on one side of your face twitch involuntarily. Hemifacial spasm is most often caused by a blood vessel touching a facial nerve, but it may be caused by a facial nerve injury or a tumor, or it may not have a cause. Hemifacial spasm is most often caused by a blood vessel touching a facial nerve. It can also be caused by a facial nerve injury or a tumor. Sometimes there's no identifiable cause. Hemifacial spasm care at Mayo Clinic.
Hemifacial spasm HFS is an involuntary twitching or contraction of the facial muscles on one side of the face. Medication, surgery, and Botox injections are treatment options to stop the spasms and relieve the discomfort. Each treatment offers benefits, but each has limitations. You and your doctor should determine which treatment is best.
When Michael Watkins came to see neurosurgeon, Garni Barkhoudarian, MD, in , he had been experiencing facial spasms for over two years. In , Michael Watkins began noticing unusual spasms and twitching on the left side of his face. Initially the spasms improved spontaneously, only to recur one year later, and this time much more noticeably.
Hemifacial spasm is a condition in which the muscles contract in tics or twitches on one side of the face, usually the left. People do not have control over these spasms, and very often they continue even during sleep. Hemifacial spasm is usually not painful and not considered a health hazard. In advanced cases, however, the eyes may remain squeezed shut for long enough to become dangerous when driving, for example.