Bell's palsy: the steroid controversy revisited

Abstract

The treatment of Bell's palsy with steroids is controversial. Several series of patients have shown steroids to be beneficial to a statistically significant degree; however, their experimental design was of poor quality and made this data less clinically valuable. The negative trials showing no benefit with steroids did not examine enough patients to have a chance to show a clinically important difference. These series must be considered as partially completed studies and not as conclusive negative trials. A Type I error analysis is the accepted method of statistically analyzing the data of these trials. After reviewing the evidence, it becomes clear that further scientific research is needed.