Prognosis and course of Bell's palsy

Summary The clinical picture of ischemic palsy of the facial nerve was analyzed by symptoms in 87 patients. The level of the lesion of the facial nerve in the channel was determined by topesthesia. Mutagenic disorder usually causes incomplete or defective recovery. The speed of development of palsy does not affect its course. Retroaural pain has little significance in the prognosis of palsy. Recorvery may be defective even in cases where no pain is present. If the nasopalpebral reflex is absent and Bell's phenomenon is positive in the 3rd week the prognosis is infavourable. In half the patients no precipitating or etiological factor was found.Clinical appraisal was made in five muscles (M. frontalis, M. orbicularis oculi et oris, M. zygomaticus, M. depressor labii inferioris). The patients were divided into three groups according to the degree of their recovery: complete, incomplete and defective recovery. Recovery was defective in elderly patients with vascular hypertension. Voluntary activity in Group 1 (complete recovery) is symmetrical by the 1st–2nd month and in Group 2 (incomplete recovery) by the 5th–7th month; in Group 3 it is permanently insufficient.