Intratympanic Steroid Treatment of Bell's Palsy in Patients with Comorbid Disease: A Preliminary Report

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the efficacy of intratympanic steroid injection (ITSI)as initial treatment and therecovery speed for Bell's palsy (BP) inpatients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and/or hypertension (HT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total,90 patients with comorbid diseases diagnosed with BP received either ITSI (study group, n=61) or systemic steroid treatment (SST) (control group, n=29).The facial nerve function was assessed using the House-Brackmann (HB) grading system for up to 6 months or until complete recovery from BP. To investigate a relationship with the complete recovery time from BR hematologic and baseline characteristic parameters were analyzed. RESULTS: The complete recovery rate of the ITSI and SST groups was 47.5% and 44.8% at the 1st month, 70.5% and 89.7% at the 3rd month, and 96.7% and 100% at the 6th month of the study, respectively. Lymphocyte and neutrophil values were significantly associated with the complete recovery time from BP. No major adverse events from ITSI itself were noticed during the procedure and during the follow-up of the treatment. CONCLUSION: Both treatment types have no superiorities over each other in initial treatment for BP in patients with comorbid diseases. ITSI is effective and safe and may avoid the unwanted side effects associated with systemic steroids inthese patients.