Assesment, diagnosis and prognosis of bells palsy: a literature review

Abstract

Facial (VII th cranial nerve) palsy is a condition that affects 1 in 5000 people worldwide. More recently it has appeared as one form of the  neural manifestations  of  infection  by  the Human  Immunodeficiency Virus. As such it is likely that this condition will feature more prominently in the caseload of physiotherapists.  Therefore the purpose of this paper is to present to physiotherapists existing knowledge on the diagnosis, objective assessment and prognosis of  facial palsy  through a  literature  review. All  available  primary  and  secondary  sources  of  literature  were  obtained through a search of Medline, Sabinet, PEDRO, the Cochrane library and a wide Google search. Objective ways of assessing Bells palsy and its recovery as  used  currently  by  the Belly Palsy Association  and  accepted  by  the American Academy  of Otolaryngology  and Head and Neck, are presented together with diagnosis and prognosis.