TY - JOUR T1 - The impact of misdiagnosing Bell’s palsy as acute stroke JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - 494 LP - 498 DO - 10.7861/clinmed.2019-0123 VL - 19 IS - 6 AU - Isuru Induruwa AU - Negin Holland AU - Rosalind Gregory AU - Kayvan Khadjooi Y1 - 2019/11/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/19/6/494.abstract N2 - Idiopathic Bell’s palsy can lead to a serious and, sometimes permanently, disfiguring and emotionally challenging facial palsy. Early diagnosis and treatment with corticosteroids are important, as they significantly improve recovery rates. Bell’s palsy is a benign condition that should be diagnosed and managed in primary care. Patients who self-present to the emergency department should be managed and discharged without needing admission. We reviewed all patients referred urgently to our hospital with facial weakness and discharged with a diagnosis of Bell’s palsy, to explore whether clinicians were confident in making this diagnosis at initial assessment and, if not, how often they sought a specialist opinion. Furthermore, we assessed the impact of its over-investigation and mistreatment on healthcare resources and the patients. ER -