PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Isuru Induruwa
AU  - Negin Holland
AU  - Rosalind Gregory
AU  - Kayvan Khadjooi
TI  - The impact of misdiagnosing Bell’s palsy as acute stroke
AID  - 10.7861/clinmed.2019-0123
DP  - 2019 Nov 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 494--498
VI  - 19
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/19/6/494.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/19/6/494.full
SO  - Clin Med2019 Nov 01; 19
AB  - 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.