Bell’s palsy workup: Does audiometry add value?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if routine audiometry in Bell’s palsy patients has prognostic value. METHODS: Retrospective case review was conducted on all Bell’s palsy patients (n=191) seen at the tertiary otolaryngology specialist outpatient clinic from 2015 to 2017. Correlation of ipsilesional audiometric thresholds with patients’ time-to-recovery and initial clinical severity (measured by House-Brackmann (HB) scoring) were used for the prognostic outcome measure. Audiometry results were analyzed using three contiguous frequency pure-tone average (1kHz, 2kHz, 4kHz). Statistical analysis was done via Stata (v13.1), significance tests were 2-sided at 5% significance level. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between audiometric thresholds between the ipsilesional ear and the contralateral ear (p=0.87). Time-to-recovery was significantly longer for patients with severe initial presentation as compared to mild and moderate severity (p<0.01). There was no correlation found between the audiometry results and HB score at presentation (p=0.39). There was no correlation found between ipsilesional audiometric thresholds and time-to-recovery (p=0.58). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that routine audiometry has limited prognostic value in Bell’s palsy patients.