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Bell's palsy surgery

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mohamadmostafa Jahansouz M.D.[2]

Overview

Overview

Surgical intervention is not recommended for the management of all patients with Bell’s palsy as spontaneous recovery occurs in most cases. Surgery is usually reserved when degeneration of facial nerve reaches 90% to 94% within one to 21 days after onset of the symptoms of Bell’s palsy or when presence of a tumor is suspected or when there is high probability of nerve ischemia.

Surgery

Surgery

  • Surgical intervention is not recommended for the management of all patients with Bell’s palsy as spontaneous recovery occurs in most cases.[1]
  • Surgery is usually reserved for patients with either:
    • When degeneration of facial nerve reaches 90% to 94% within one to 21 days after onset of the symptoms of Bell’s palsy.[2]
    • When presence of a tumor is suspected.[3]
    • When there is high probability of nerve ischemia.[4]
References

References

  1. ↑ McAllister K, Walker D, Donnan PT, Swan I (2013). “Surgical interventions for the early management of Bell’s palsy”. Cochrane Database Syst Rev (10): CD007468. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007468.pub3. PMID 24132718.
  2. ↑ Fisch U (1981). “Surgery for Bell’s palsy”. Arch Otolaryngol. 107 (1): 1–11. PMID 7469872.
  3. ↑ May M, Klein SR, Taylor FH (1984). “Indications for surgery for Bell’s palsy”. Am J Otol. 5 (6): 503–12. PMID 6517138.
  4. ↑ Grewal DS, Hathiram BT, Walvekar R, Mohorikar AV, Shroff M, Bahal NK (2002). “Surgical decompression in bell’s palsy – our viewpoint”. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 54 (3): 198–203. doi:10.1007/BF02993103. PMC 3450451. PMID 23119892.

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