Surgical Treatment of Synkinetic Eyelid Closure in Marin-amat Syndrome Complicated by Facial Palsy After COVID-19 Vaccination.

[BACKGROUND] Marin-Amat syndrome is a rare, irreversible, and hard-to-treat neurological sequalae that has recently been associated with COVID-19 vaccination. Given the rarity of this condition and the absence of curative treatment to date, the authors herein review the literature to date and report the first ever successful surgical treatment of 2 patients who developed Marin-Amat syndrome after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination.

[MATERIALS AND METHODS] In this case study, the authors treated Marin-Amat syndrome in a 45-year-old woman and a 75-year-old woman with facial palsy that developed 24 days and 4 months after receiving COVID-19 vaccination, respectively. The patients' clinical histories and physical examination results were reviewed. A literature review was performed using PUBMED for the years 1990 to the present.

[RESULTS] It is noteworthy that these are the first reported cases of Marin-Amat Syndrome to be successfully treated by surgery. The patient's neurological symptoms improved after surgical intervention in contrast with the lack of response after botulinum toxin injection and intensive rehabilitation.

[CONCLUSION] This study is the first to demonstrate the successful treatment of the extremely rare Marin-Amat syndrome after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination through surgery. Selective myectomy and myotomy in situ in combination with levator plication proves to be highly effective and favorable in treating this condition as the surgery overtakes the limited effectiveness of and directly obviates the need for botulinum toxin injections, thereby improving patient satisfaction and quality of life.