[Bell's palsy (etiology, pathogenesis, clinical picture, course, outcome)]

The authors studied 908 patients with Bell's paralysis. In 373 cases the etiology was cooling, in 52--vascular diseases, in 207 cases the etiology was not established. An analysis of the clinical picture development permits to assume that different modern theories of the pathogenesis of Bell's paralysis (the theory of primary ischemia, secondary ischemia a combination of primary and secondary ischemia) do not exclude each other, finding a different application depending upon the etiology of the paralysis. The report contains a detailed description of the clinical picture and development of Bell's paralysis. It is established, that the facial nerve in Bell's paralysis is usually affected in the inferior part of the Fallopian tube. A follow-up study of 536 patients demonstrated that in 174 cases (32.4%) (those who were discharged from the hospital with an incomplete therapeutical effect) a contracture of the mimical muscles was formed. In 70 of them the symptom of "crocodile tears" was found. In 73 patients there were homolateral relapses of Bell's paralysis.