(145) Does Frailty Correlate with Facial Nerve Recovery After Bell’s Palsy?

Introduction: Although there are myriad factors that may influence an individual’s recovery to Bell’s Palsy, we aimed to examine the relationship between age and frailty with the degree of facial nerve recovery in patients with Bell’s Palsy.

Methods: Electronic medical records were retrospectively reviewed for patients who presented to our department with Bell’s palsy between 2014 and 2022. Demographic data, medical history, modified frailty index-5 (mfi-5) scores, and clinical notes were recorded. Statistics were performed in SPSS.

Results: There were 202 patients with Bell’s palsy identified. Among them, 121 had sufficient data to determine facial paralysis outcomes. Mean (SD) follow up was 611 days (interquartile range 138-750) after initial presentation. 102 patients presented with a House-Brackmann (HB) score of 3 or higher. 35% of patients improved ≥2 on HB within the follow up period. The mean mfi-5 was 0.58 among those who improved ≥2 on HB vs. 0.38 among those who improved < 2 on HB (P= 0.576). The mean age was 54 years among those who improved ≥2 on HB vs. 53 years among those who improved < 2 on HB (P= 0.671).

Conclusions: Frailty and age were not correlated with the degree of facial nerve recovery after Bell’s palsy in our cohort.