Intratympanic Stereoidal Injections for Facial Nerve Palsy

Overview

Bell's palsy is defined as a facial nerve palsy without any other known cause. The common practice for this disease consists of the use of oral steroids. Such treatment can cause harm to people who have disabilities or prior conditions such as pregnancies, diabetes, obesity and/or high blood pressure. While the use of intratympanic injection for sudden sensory hearing loss is well rehearsed in many practices, similar management of facial nerve palsy due to Bell's phenomenon is rare and a few researches have been conducted regarding the subject. In this research we suggest intratympanic injections for these patients as a treatment for Bell's palsy.

Bell's palsy is defined as a facial nerve paralysis without any other known diagnosis or cause .Its' estimated occurrence is in 20 to 30 people per 100,000 people per year. The occurence is greater in patients older than 65 years old and lower in children younger than 13 years old. There are many estimated etiologies for Bell's palsy, such as failure of the vasa nervosa, viral infections, ischemic neuropathies and auto immune reactions. Of those, viral hypothesis is the most widely accepted. The prognosis for recovery for most patients is 80% to 90%. One series showed that only 17 out of 1505 patients demonstrated moderate to severe sequela and none had complete facial nerve paralysis. The common practice for the management of Bell's palsy consists of oral steroids with or without the antiviral medications. A recent study made by the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck surgery in Korea indicated that Intratympanic injections could replace the use of oral steroids . Another recent study by Jong job lee et al. has shown that Intratympanic injections have prolonged uptake in rats, in comparison to Intraperitoneal injections.

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Central Contacts