Early Stage Steroid Treatment for Acute Facial Paralysis in Korea

Kim, Myung Woo; Kim, Jin

Abstract

Facial nerve paralysis is an unexpected or embarrassed disease which unilateral facial musculatures are suddenly or gradually paralyzed by various causes. However, the most common cause of acute facial paralysis is known to be Bell's palsy. Until now, various treatments are recommended to patients with acute facial paralysis. Especially in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and China, there are so many patients who be managed by acupuncture therapy as the initial treatment, even if there exists clearly proven steroid therapy that minimizes neural damage and the incidence of permanent facial complications could be reduced. In Korea, various procedures not clearly unverified or unproven such as acupuncture treatment, massage therapy and thermotherapy are performed without standards regimen instead of administering steroid to patients with acute facial paralysis in the early stages. It has been already known that any initial trials with un-established treatment without full understanding of pathophysiology of facial nerve injury worsen prognosis after acute facial paralysis. There are reports showing that the prognosis of Korean patients with Bell's palsy is worse than globally known prognosis of patients with Bell's palsy. Such reports may reflect unverified procedures and consequently putting off steroid treatment in the early stages. Therefore, this is a paper intended to investigate issues occurring in treating a patient with acute facial paralysis in Korea in order to prepare the medical guidelines for the better solution.