Facial Nerve Damage in Bell’s Palsy according to When Korean Medical Treatment was Started: A Retrospective Study
Article information
Abstract
Objectives:
Although integrative Korean medical treatments have been suggested to be effective for treating Bell’s palsy, the effect of Korean medical treatment according to when treatment was started is unknown in the clinical field. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the results of treating Bell’s palsy according to different starting points of integrative Korean medical treatments.
Methods:
We screened patients who visited the Facial Palsy Center at Kyung Hee University Hospital for Korean and Western combined medical treatment from March 2011 to February 2016. A total of 821 out of 2086 patients were studied, including their basic characteristics and results of an electromyography. Patients who started Korean medical treatment within 3 days of onset were placed in group A, within 9 days of onset in group B, and patients who started treatment after 10 days of onset were placed in group C. We tried to compare the level of facial nerve damage by electromyography between groups.
Results:
The patients in group C had the highest axonal loss rates in all branches(frontal, oculi, nasal, oris). The post hoc analyses revealed the difference of axonal loss rates between group A and B was not statistically significant. Only group C showed statistically higher axonal loss rates in all branches.
Conclusion:
The study results showed that the patients who had delayed Korean medical treatments had a higher level of facial nerve damage by electromyography. According to the results of this study, early application of integrative Korean medical treatment is suggested.

Box plots for axonal loss rate comparison among groups divided by days from onset until the first Korean Medicine treatment
A: 0~3 days; B: 4~9 days; C: more than 9 days; +: arithmetic mean; o: outliers.