A Multicentral Randomized Control Study on Clinical Acupuncture Treatment of Bell＇s Palsy

To confirm the clinical therapeutic effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on Bell＇s palsy. Methods： 480 cases from 4 hospitals were enrolled for this study, among whom 439 cases completed the whole course of the study. The patients were randomly divided into the following 3 groups, a control group（treated with prednisone, vitamin B 1, vitamin B 12 and dibazol）, an acu-moxibustion group （treated with filiform needle plus moxibustion）, and a basic treatment plus acu-moxibustion group （treated with oral medicine like those in the control group plus acupuncture, and with moxibustion like in the acu-moxibustion group）. The whole treatment course lasted 4 weeks. The therapeutic effects were evaluated according to the symptoms and signs, House-Brackmann grading scale and facial disability indexes（FDI）. Results： All the 4 centers （hospitals） completed this study well, with no statistically significant difference found among the 4 centers in therapeutic effects. The patients with different conditions were well distributed in the 3 groups, thus the basic general data were comparable （P〉0.05）. The therapeutic effects of the two treatment groups were better than the control group （respectively P〈0.05 and P〈0.01）, and it was the best in the acu-moxibustion group （P〈0.01）. Conclusion： Acupuncture and moxibustion may exert definite therapeutic effects on Bell＇s palsy, better than that of the basic treatment group or the basic treatment plus acu-moxibustion group.