Meige Syndrome

Excerpt

Meige syndrome is one of the focal dystonic movement disorders identified as blepharospasm (double eyelid spasm) and oromandibular dystonia. Dystonia is defined as abnormal involuntary posturing or body movements due to sustained muscle contractions, usually happens due to neurological and medical reasons. In the early 20th century, Henry Meige, a French neurologist, had found abnormal contractions of midline facial muscles in some patients, those he first named as “spasm facial median.” These patients also had a similar clinical picture in the muscles of jaw and oropharynx. Dr. George Paulson first proposed the term “Meige syndrome” in 1972 for patients having facial muscle spasm, particularly blepharospasm and dystonia of oromandibular muscles. After several years, the term “Brueghel syndrome” was introduced, used by Gilbert, for a case of jaw dystonia. It is differentiated from Meige syndrome by the absence of blepharospasm.