Bell's palsy: the steroid controversy revisited

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Laryngoscope Vol. 94; no. 11 Pt 1; p. 1472
Main Authors Burgess, L P, Yim, D W, Lepore, M L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.11.1984
Subjects
Adrenal Cortex Hormones - therapeutic use
Clinical Trials as Topic
Facial Paralysis - drug therapy
Humans
Research Design
Statistics as Topic
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0023-852X
1531-4995
DOI:10.1288/00005537-198411000-00016