Abstract
All decompression surgery is based on the lack of understanding that Bell’s palsy is a viral demyelinating disease that is longitudinal – not perpendicular – to the facial canal and that surgery cannot possibly help a viral disease. These findings exclude the etiologic possibility of an “ischemic paralysis” and are in accord with our logically derived belief that treatment directed to relieve neural entrapment is a wasted effort.
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Received: 27 March 2001 / Accepted: 5 July 2001
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Adour, K. Decompression for Bell’s palsy: why I don’t do it. European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology 259, 40–47 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00007528
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00007528