A 64-year-old woman arrived at the university hospital in Halle, Germany, unable to speak, weak on her left side, and with her jaw clamped so tightly that neither she nor her doctors could open it. There was a little blood in her mouth, and the lockjaw kept anyone from examining it properly or taking a full history.
Her stroke team treated the emergency in front of them. Only after the jaw relaxed did a far rarer diagnosis come into view: Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome, a disorder in which people lose voluntary control of the face, tongue, throat and jaw while reflexive movements such as laughing still work. Neurologists and a radiologist at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg described the case on May 14, 2026, in Neurological Sciences.
