What is Blepharospasm

Blepharo means “eyelid”. Spasm means “uncontrolled muscle contraction”. The term blepharospasm [‘blef-a-ro-spaz-m] can be applied to any abnormal blinking or eyelid tic or twitch resulting from any cause, ranging from dry eyes to Tourette’s syndrome to tardive dyskinesia. The blepharospasm referred to here is officially called benign essential blepharospasm (BEB) to distinguish it from the less serious secondary blinking disorders. “Benign” indicates the condition is not life threatening and “essential” is a medical term meaning “of unknown cause”. Patients with blepharospasm have normal eyes. The visual disturbance is due solely to the forced closure of the eyelids.

Treatments

• In most cases of BEB the treatment of choice is botulinum toxin injections which relax the muscles and stop the spasms
• Medications (drug therapy)
• Surgery–either local surgery of the eye muscles or deep brain stimulation surgery