Aim: Bell's palsy is a form of deficiency in the face and paralysis related to peripheral- nerve dysfunction. Our study investigates the role of the inflammatory values in predicting Bell’s palsy prognosis.

Methods: A total of 58 Bell’s palsy ≥ III patients, according to the House Brackman classification, on the first presentation were taken as the study group, and 60 age and gender-matched healthy people without any disease formed the control group. The success of the corticosteroid treatment was accepted as House Brackmann grades I and II in the post-treatment follow-up, and grades III to VI patients were evaluated as partial-not meaningful recovery. In addition, pretreatment hemogram and biochemistry tests were recorded, and the C-reactive protein (CRP)/albumin ratio, Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), and mean platelet volume (MPV) of the patients were compared.

Results: In the study group, the CRP/albumin ratio and the mean RDW were statistically significantly higher than the control group (0.958 ± 0.91 vs. 0.478 ± 0.322, p = 0.029; 13.89 ± 1.27 vs. 12.98 ± 0.72, p <0.001). RDW was statistically significantly higher in those with partial-not meaningful recovery than the successfully treated patients (14.43 ± 1.59 vs. 13.67 ± 1.06, p = 0.030). Other laboratory parameters were not significantly different (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Higher CRP/albumin, RDW, NLR, MPV were related to a poor prognosis for Bell’s palsy. RDW, which to date has been a widely used marker for inflammation, could be a potentially promising marker for use in predicting prognosis in Bell’s palsy.

Keywords: Bell’s palsy, C-reactive protein, albumin, red blood cell distribution width