SEASONAL INCIDENCE OF BELL’S PALSY IN AL-JOUF REGION
Keywords:
Bell’s palsy, seasonal variation, Al-Jouf regionAbstract
Objectives: To evaluate the influence of different seasons on the occurrence of Bell’s palsy.
Material and Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the Central Hospital of the northern area, Al-Jouf,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The facial appearance of Bell’s palsy patients was assessed in four standard poses: at rest,
with a smile, with raised eyebrows, and with eyes tightly closed. Four hundred and three cases (males 211, females
192) of Bell’s palsy between 10 to 60 years of age between January 2011 to December 2012 were included in the
study. Patient distribution patterns by season and age groups were recorded. The collected data were analyzed with
standard statistical methods using SPSS version 15.0.
Results: There were 52.4% males and 47.6 females. 23.3% were aged 10-20 years, 23.6% were aged 21-30 years,
and 20.9% between 31-40 years, 15.1% between 41-50 years and 17.1% were above 51 years of age. Bell’s palsy was
more (27.8%) during the autumn season followed by winter season (26.3%) in the two sexes, whereas both summer
(23.1%) and spring seasons (22.8%) had nearly the same pattern.
Conclusion: Changes in the seasons have some effect on the incidence of Bell’s Palsy however a larger sample size
recruited from multicenter would be helpful in further clarifying the fact that whether all these differences are purely
due to environmental, climatic and seasonal factors or due to racial susceptibility.
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