Benefits of High-dose Steroid + Hespander + Mannitol Administration in the Treatment of Bell's Palsy

Objective: Large-scale investigations have not been recently conducted on the efficacy of high-dose steroid administration of prednisolone (PSL) for Bell's palsy. We compared treatment results between normal-dose steroid (PSL 60 mg/d) and high-dose steroid (PSL 200 mg/d) + Hespander + Mannitol administration. We also investigated the recovery rate for antiviral agents. Study Design: Retrospective case review. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: A total of 675 patients with Bell's palsy who had grade V and grade VI on the House–Brackmann (HB) scale were treated in our department between 1995 and 2014. These patients could be divided into a normal-dose group and high-dose group. Methods: We separately assessed treatment outcomes for HB grade V patients and HB grade VI patients. Logistic regression analysis was also performed to investigate factors that can impact treatment outcomes, i.e., sex, age, days to start of treatment, PSL dosage, and antiviral drug administration. Results: Recovery rates were significantly better in the high-dose steroid + Hespander + Mannitol group in comparison with the normal-dose steroid group for HB grade V (100% versus 77.7%) and HB grade VI (92.5% versus 68.2%). Additional effects of antiviral agents were only shown in the normal-dose group. Significant factors for treatment outcomes were PSL 200 mg/d administration and early initiation of treatment. Insignificant factors were sex, age, and the antiviral agent. Conclusion: We showed the high-dose steroid + Hespander + Mannitol administration produced significantly better outcomes than normal-dose steroid administration in the treatment of patients with Bell's palsy.

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