Abstract
Objective : The face is very important for human communication. So facial palsy patients experience not only physical disturbances but also serious emotional stress. Therefore the focus of treatment must be to not only aid the recovery of objective symptoms but also the improvement of subjective quality of life. However there has not been enough Oriental Medical study in this field until now. Thus this study was begun to suggest a useful index for the treatment of facial palsy. Methods : Grade of paralysis, sequelas, and quality of life were used for evaluation. To evaluate Grade of paralysis, House-Brackman Grade was used as the Gross scale and Kim's Grade was used as the Regional scale. Sequelas were evaluated by muscle contraction, synkinesis, NA, and grade of philtrum tilt. Quality of life was evaluated by SF-36v2, Facial Disability Index, and Vas. Results & Conclusion : 1. The change of grade of paralysis between the early and the present time reveals remarkable improvement statistically. 2. There was a remarkable improvement in all parts of quality of life except several areas of SF-36(RP, RE, MH, VT) 3. In only PF(Physical Function) of FDI, quality of life increased remarkably according to the improvement of grade of paralysis. 4. There is the positive relationship among Kim's grade, HB grade and Synkinesis 2. 5. Synkinesis among sequelas has the greatest effect on quality of life. And muscle contraction, change of NA, and grade of philtrum tilt also affect quality to some extent. 6. There was no remarkable relationship between the period of illness and change of quality of life. 7. Change of NA is shown after 3 months of illness and synkinesis becomes worse after 6 months of illness.
