Mustafa Ahmed Hassan Kamil, Suleiman Ahmed Mohammed
King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
University of London, FFDRCSI, London, UK.
Int J Dent. 2020 Mar 16;2020:2160256. doi: 10.1155/2020/2160256. eCollection 2020.
Bell's palsy is an acute idiopathic facial nerve paralysis of sudden onset. It is the most common cause of lower motor neuron facial nerve paralysis with an annual incidence of 15-30 per 100,000 population. The objective of this work is to study the grade of the attack and the associated symptoms of Bell's palsy in a group of Sudanese patients. The study type is an analytical prospective-based study. The study was carried out at Khartoum Teaching Dental Hospital, Khartoum General Teaching Hospital. In this prospective of the study, 48 patients with Bell's palsy were evaluated using the House-Brackman scale in relation to the above mentioned variables.
The study showed 18 patients (37.5%) were grade II, and 24 patients (50%) had postauricular pain before and during the attack. By the end of the study period, 40 patients recovered completely (83.3%), and 8 (16.7%) patients did not recover completely, 5 (10.4%) patients complained of hearing changes during the attack, and 13 (27.1) patients gave a history of exposure to cold before the attack.
Based on our prospective study, we conclude that the percentage of complete recovery decreases with increased severity of the attack at onset. We failed to demonstrate any relation between postauricular pain and prognosis of Bell's palsy. The percentage of taste changes in our study is low in comparison with those obtained in the literature. In addition, all the patients showed complete regain of taste sensation. The percentage of patients with hearing changes in our study is high compared with some studies. In literature, we have no explanation for that, and it may be related to severity of the attack. In the present study, we found a strong association between exposure to cold and development of Bell's palsy. As the number of patients in our study is small and there is a limited period of follow-up, the study may not reflect the real situation; therefore, we need a large population-based study.
贝尔面瘫是一种急性特发性面神经麻痹，起病突然。它是下运动神经元面神经麻痹最常见的病因，年发病率为每10万人15 - 30例。本研究的目的是研究一组苏丹患者中贝尔面瘫的发作程度及相关症状。研究类型为基于前瞻性的分析性研究。该研究在喀土穆教学牙科医院和喀土穆综合教学医院进行。在本研究的前瞻性阶段，使用House - Brackman量表对48例贝尔面瘫患者进行了上述变量的评估。
研究显示，18例患者（37.5%）为Ⅱ级，24例患者（50%）在发作前和发作期间有耳后疼痛。到研究期结束时，40例患者完全康复（83.3%），8例（16.7%）患者未完全康复，5例（10.4%）患者在发作期间抱怨听力改变，13例（27.1%）患者有发作前受凉史。
基于我们的前瞻性研究，我们得出结论，发作时病情严重程度增加，完全康复的百分比会降低。我们未能证明耳后疼痛与贝尔面瘫预后之间存在任何关联。与文献中的数据相比，我们研究中味觉改变的百分比很低。此外，所有患者的味觉均完全恢复。与一些研究相比，我们研究中听力改变患者的百分比很高。在文献中，我们对此没有解释，这可能与发作的严重程度有关。在本研究中，我们发现受凉与贝尔面瘫的发生之间存在密切关联。由于我们研究中的患者数量较少且随访期有限，该研究可能无法反映真实情况；因此，我们需要进行一项基于大量人群的研究。
