Bell's palsy workup: Does audiometry add value?

• 来源期刊: 中华耳科学杂志（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（2）
• 所属期刊栏目: Research Articles
• 页码范围: 61-64
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Objective: To investigate if routine audiometry in Bell's palsy patients has prognostic value.Methods: Retrospective case review was conducted on all Bell's palsy patients (n=191) seen at the ter-tiary otolaryngology specialist outpatient clinic from 2015 to 2017. Correlation of ipsilesional audiometric thresholds with patients' time-to-recovery and initial clinical severity (measured by House-Brackmann (HB) scoring) were used for the prognostic outcome measure. Audiometry results were analyzed using three contiguous frequency pure-tone average (1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz). Statistical analysis was done via Stata (v13.1), significance tests were 2-sided at 5％ significance level. Results: There was no significant difference between audiometric thresholds between the ipsilesional ear and the contralateral ear (p=0.87). Time-to-recovery was significantly longer for patients with severe initial presentation as compared to mild and moderate severity (p<0.01). There was no correlation found between the audiometry results and HB score at presentation (p=0.39). There was no correlation found between ipsilesional audiometric thresholds and time-to-recovery (p=0.58). Conclusion: Our study suggests that routine audiometry has limited prognostic value in Bell's palsy patients.