Clinical advantages of electroneurography in patients with Bell's palsy within two weeks after onset.

One of the advantages of applying ENoG to patients with Bell's palsy resides in its quantitative determinability for the axons which do not undergo wallerian degeneration. The relation between the ENoG value each day after onset and during the recovery process was investigated in 551 patients with Bell's palsy within 2 weeks after onset in order to consider the diagnostic value of ENoG. It was discovered that ENoG on patients with Bell's palsy makes it possible to reveal the extent of wallerian degeneration by 7 days after the onset of palsy. Accordingly, treatment of Bell's palsy should be administered within the above 7 days; as early as 8 days after onset, exact prognostic diagnosis and judgment of therapeutic effect from ENoG values were concluded to be practicable.