Objective: To determine whether early intervention with intratympanic steroid injection, known as concurrent intratympanic steroid therapy, is effective as a supplement to systemic steroid therapy for treating moderate-severe to severe Bell's palsy.
Design: An open-label historical control trial.
Setting: Tertiary referral center.
Participants: A total of 35 Bell's palsy patients presenting with House-Brackmann grade IV or higher were treated with intratympanic steroid therapy concurrent with standard systemic treatment and compared with 108 patients treated with standard systemic therapy alone started within 7 days of onset.
Interventions: In the concurrent intratympanic steroid therapy group, patients received both 410 mg of prednisolone (standard dose) and 1.65 mg of intratympanic dexamethasone for 10 consecutive days. Patients in the control group received the standard dose, or more, of systemic prednisolone. Both groups were additionally treated with valacyclovir.
Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome measure was restoration of a House-Brackmann score of grade I.
Results: The rate of recovery to House-Brackmann Grade I was higher for the concurrent intratympanic steroid therapy group than for the control group (94% vs 73%, p = 0.008). The adjusted odds ratio was 5.47 (95% confidence interval: 1.18-25.21, p = 0.029).
Conclusions: The recovery rate was higher for concurrent intratympanic steroid therapy treatment than for standard-of-care control treatment, regardless of whether steroid with lower or equivalent glucocorticoid action was administered. This result suggests that concurrent treatment with intratympanic steroid therapy is a potentially beneficial supplement to systemic steroid administration.