Prognostic value of nerve excitability test in Bell's palsy

This paper reports the experience of the authors using facial nerve excitability test in Bell's palsy as a tool to understand better the prognosis in that pathology. The authors made a retrospective study of 222 cases of Bell's palsy, followed by serial facial nerve excitability test. The goal of this study as to define correlations between facial nerve excitability test (N.E.T.) values, the rate and degree of recovery OF PATIENTS PRESENTING A Bell's palsy. Results indicated that incomplete paralysis with a normal N.E.T. forecasts a fast and complete recovery in less than three months. Complete paralysis with a normal N.E.T. also forecasts a complete recovery. Those cases of complete paralysis with an abnormally elevated (greater than 2 m. amp.) N.E.T. lead to unsatisfactory results in 27.7 per cent of patients and of these 66.6 per cent took more than three months to recover if at all. Of the patients with complete paralysis and no response to facial nerve stimulation, 73 per cent showed an unsatisfactory recovery.