Can Acupuncture be an Adjunct Therapy for Bell’s Palsy in Post COVID-19?- A Review

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical evidence of acupuncture treatment for Bell’s palsy and analyze its therapeutical options in post COVID-19 Bell’s palsy patients.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted by two independent investigators using PubMed, MEDLINE, Google scholar, LILACS and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials and others from 2000 up until 2021, using the following keywords: Bell’s Palsy, covid-19, acupuncture, Mucormycosis, vaccine and steroids. Selection of articles was restricted to full-text articles published in English language only. We included all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the clinical effects of an acupuncture intervention (acupuncture used alone or add on) with no treatment. Accordingly, RCTs fulfilling the criteria were included in the review.

Results: Most of the studies were generally of low methodological quality and only six randomized controlled trials (1076 people) were finally included for the study. In all of the included studies the treatment group or the acupuncture group reported advantageous effects or better outcomes compared to baseline or control group. No adverse events were reported in any of the included studies.

Conclusions: Our review suggest that Acupuncture can be an adjunct or a good alternate therapy for patients with Bell’s palsy post recovery of COVID-19 infection and especially those with the risk of predisposed factor for mucormycosis and other severe health complication. However, the present evidence might not be sufficiently robust against methodological flaws of the included RCTs. Well-designed trials with high methodological qualities are essential to establish a strong conclusion about the efficacy of acupuncture for Bell’s palsy.