Facial nerve palsy secondary to Epstein-Barr virus infection of the middle ear in pediatric population may be more common than we think.

The aim of this article is to alert clinicians that AOM induced facial nerve palsy secondary to an acute EBV infection in the pediatric population is very likely more common than originally thought. To our knowledge until the present case series, only 2 cases of AOM induced facial nerve palsy secondary to an acute EBV infection have been reported and no cases of EBV infection proven by the ISH technique showing the presence of EBV-specific RNA sequences in patient's tissue biopsies have been reported until now.