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Comparison of acyclovir and famciclovir for the treatment of Bell’s palsy

  • Otology
  • Published:
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An Erratum to this article was published on 08 August 2016

Abstract

The relative effectiveness of acyclovir and famciclovir in the treatment of Bell’s palsy is unclear. This study therefore compared recovery outcomes in patients with Bell’s palsy treated with acyclovir and famciclovir. The study cohort consisted of patients with facial palsy who visited the outpatient clinic between January 2006 and January 2014. Patients were treated with prednisolone plus either acyclovir (n = 457) or famciclovir (n = 245). Patient outcomes were measured using the House-Brackmann scale according to initial severity of disease and underlying disease. The overall recovery rate tended to be higher in the famciclovir than in the acyclovir group. The rate of recovery in patients with initially severe facial palsy (grades V and VI) was significantly higher in the famciclovir than in the acyclovir group (p = 0.01), whereas the rates of recovery in patients with initially moderate palsy (grade III–IV) were similar in the two groups. The overall recovery rates in patients without hypertension or diabetes mellitus were higher in the famciclovir than in the acyclovir group, but the difference was not statistically significant. Treatment with steroid plus famciclovir was more effective than treatment with steroid plus acyclovir in patients with severe facial palsy. Famciclovir may be the antiviral agent of choice in the treatment of patients with severe facial palsy.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Otohinolaryngology, H & N Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-702, Korea

      Ho Joong Kim, Sang Hoon Kim, Jae Yong Byun, Moon Suh Park & Seung Geun Yeo

    2. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

      Junyang Jung

    3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical Science and Engineering Research Center for Bioreaction to Reactive Oxygen Species, BK-21, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 130-701, Korea

      Sung Su Kim

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    1. Ho Joong Kim
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    Correspondence to Seung Geun Yeo.

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    No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) Grant funded by the Korea government(MSIP) (No. 2011-0030072).

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    None of the authors reported financial disclosures.

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    H. J. Kim and S. H. Kim contributed equally to this work.

    An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00405-016-4216-x.

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    Kim, H.J., Kim, S.H., Jung, J. et al. Comparison of acyclovir and famciclovir for the treatment of Bell’s palsy. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 273, 3083–3090 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-016-3927-3

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-016-3927-3

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