Abstract
Of the 1, 094 patients with Bell's palsy we treated in the past 15 years, 49 or 4.5% had bilateral or recurrent palsy. These 49 patients were classified into the following four groups according to their clinical courses: 1) bilateral simultaneous Bell's palsy (5 patients, 0.5%), 2) bilateral recurrent Bell's palsy (1 patient, 0.1%), 3) bilateral alternating Bell's palsy (21 patients, 1.9%) and 4) unilateral recurrent Bell's palsy (22 patients, 2.0%). Distributions by sex and age of onset of the above groups were compared with those of 481 patients with fresh, single Bell's palsy. Statistically significant difference was found with respect to the distribution by sex between bilateral palsy and unilateral recurrent palsy as well as between fresh single palsy and unilateral recurrent palsy. Close similarity was noted with respect to the distribution by the age of onset between bilateral and single fresh palsies. Unilateral recurrent palsy tended to occur at a younger age. Different pathogeneses were suggested for unilateral recurrent palsy and other forms of palsy.
