Usually, clinicians can also distinguish idiopathic facial nerve palsy from other disorders that cause peripheral facial nerve palsies based on their characteristic symptoms and signs; these disorders include the following: Herpes zoster oticus (geniculate herpes, Ramsay Hunt syndrome) Middle ear infections or mastoid infections Sarcoidosis Lyme disease Petrous bone fractures Carcinomatous or leukemic nerve invasion Chronic meningitis Cerebellopontine angle or glomus jugulare tumors Diabetes Also, the other disorders that cause peripheral facial nerve palsy typically develop more slowly than idiopathic facial nerve palsy.