Epidemiología de la Parálisis Facial durante la Pandemia COVID-19 en el Complejo Asistencial Universitario de León: Un Estudio Poblacional

A Population-Based Study

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Different clinical series on the prevalence of Bell’s palsy (BP) in the pandemic are emerging in the literature. Some researchers suggest a link between facial palsy and SARS-CoV-2, although other authors do not find significant differences in the incidence of facial palsy, with low rate of detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral genome in nasal swab coinciding with paralysis. After two year of the COVID-19 pandemic, attributing to the SARS-CoV-2 virus an increase of incidence of BP cases remains unclear.Method: We present findings of investigations in incidence of BP during the COVID-19 pandemic in a population of over 350,000 people in a single institution in the northern of Spain. Our research focuses on some epidemiological aspects of the temporal distribution of BP cases during the pandemic waves. We reviewed the BP cases during 2018-2021 and we calculated the crude annual incidence of BP. We also collected 7 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR in nasal swab during the BP in 2020.Finally, we explored the possibility of clusters of BP around the “peaks” of CO¬VID-19 pandemic based on data from the Health Ministry of Spain over the 14-day Accumulated Incidence of COVID-19-positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants.Results: We collected 209 patients who developed a BP between March 1, 2020, and May 30, 2021. We classified them according to the 4 pandemic waves of 14-day accumulated incidence of SARS-CoV-2 per 100,000 inhabitants in Spain. A similar number of cases of BP were diagnosed throughout the whole pandemic, without identifying clusters of BP during the “waves” or the “peaks.” Based on this uniform distribution of cases during the 14 pandemic months, we conclude that we have not found an increase in the incidence of BP cases in relation to the increase in the accumulated incidence of contagion by SARS-CoV-2 virus in our population. The crude annual incidence of BP was: 34 per 100,000 person-years in 2018, 29 in 2019, 31 in 2020 and 29 in 2022. Out of the 7 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR in nasal swab during the BP in 2020, and only 2 resulted positive.Discussion and Conclusions: Based on this uniform distribution of cases during the 14 pandemic months, we conclude that we have not found an increase in the incidence of BP cases in relation to the increase in the accumulated incidence of contagion by SARS-CoV-2 virus in our population.