Background Bell´s palsy is the most common type of peripheral facial palsy in pediatrics. Recent studies strongly support the combined therapy with corticosteroids (CS), antiviral drugs and vitamins B. Our study aims to assess the effectiveness of proposed therapeutic modalities, including the relation between the patients‘ recovery and their age, etiological factors and applied treatment.

Methods The retrospective analysis involved 88 patients (52 females/36 males), between 18 months and 18 years old; the average age was 11.7 years. Data was obtained from the documentation of patients hospitalized at the Clinic of Neurology and Psychiatry for Children and Youth in Belgrade, from 2000 to 2017. House Brackmann´s scale was used for the assessment of disease course and outcome. Pearson´s χ2 test, Friedman´s test and general linear model were applied for statistical data processing.

Results The majority of patients were treated with combined CS/vitamins (42.0%) and CS/antiviral/vitamins (17.0%), whereas CS only received 22.7% of patients, all with an appropriate physical treatment. The group of idiopathic paralysis makes 62.5%, while the incidence of symptomatic paralysis is 37.5%; however, the recovery rate between these groups has not been shown (p=0.309). Patients received CS therapy were divided into 4 groups: CS only, CS+antiviral, CS+vitamins B, and CS+antiviral+vitamins B. The statistically significant recovery was registered in each group (p< 0.001); however, no difference was found between the groups in term of recovery rate (p=865). For the assessment of recovery period in relation to the age, the obtained p value was 0.054, a borderline level, suggesting a faster recovery of children at younger age.

Conclusion The acute one-sided mimic musculature weakness is mostly idiopathic. The effectiveness of the CS therapy was strongly supported, suggesting CS as a core treatment for the Bell´s palsy. It has been shown the faster recovery of children at younger age.

Disclosure(s) Nothing to disclose