AAFPRS038 - Bell’s Palsy and COVID-19: Insights from a TriNetX Analysis
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
4:00 PM – 4:05 PM CT
Location: Landmark D
Divya Balchander, Hira Qureshi, Claudia I. Cabrera MD MS, Benjamin R. Johnson MD, Akina Tamaki MD, Cyrus Rabbani MD
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (Balchander, Qureshi, Cabrera, Johnson, Tamaki, Rabbani), Drexel University College of Medicine (Balchander), Case Western Reserve University College of Medicine (Qureshi)
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a multisystem disease that has been linked to Bell’s palsy and other forms of facial paralysis. Studies have also shown increased risk of Bell’s palsy in unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 infection.
Learning Objective: Explore the relationship between COVID-19 and Bell’s palsy.
Study Objective: The focus of this study is to better understand the association between COVID-19 infection and vaccination status with Bell’s palsy and related facial nerve disorders.
Design Type: TriNetX retrospective review
Methods: The TriNetX platform was used to identify patients with Bell’s palsy and related facial nerve disorders presenting to 45 health care organizations in the United States. Identified patients were stratified by COVID-19 infection and vaccination status. Cases were further stratified by year, race, and ethnicity to identify trends in presentation.
Results: Patients without COVID-19 had significantly lower odds of facial weakness (OR=0.6385, P<.01) and other disorders of the facial nerve (OR=0.7966, P<.01), and patients with COVID-19 vaccination had significantly lower odds of Bell’s palsy (OR=0.2435, P<.01), facial weakness (OR=0.1209, P<.01), and related disorders of the facial nerve (OR=0.1726, P<.01); both groups were compared to their COVID-19 infected counterparts. Prevalence of Bell’s palsy increased in 2020 and 2021 compared to pre-pandemic years.
Conclusion: Our exploratory study suggests an association between COVID-19 infection, Bell’s palsy, and related disorders, with protective effects from the COVID-19 vaccination. We believe this study is of the first to report this important otolaryngological relationship between COVID-19 and Bell’s palsy in the setting of a large patient population.