Intratympanic injection of steroid for treatment of facial paralysis

Corticosteroids administered systemically have been used with varying degrees of success in the treatment of idiopathic facial paralysis. There is reason to believe that this drug exerts a beneficial influence based on the work of numerous investigators. On the basis of existing dehiscences along the course of the facial nerve and exposure of the chorda tympani nerve, such abnormalities might well be sites of entrance for insult to these nerves; likewise, they might serve as portals for direct medication. Such medication, a corticosteroid, might thus be introduced intratympanically. Seven earlier cases were so treated with complete recovery in six cases and 75 percent recovery in the seventh. Three more cases are reported, all with good and prompt recovery. No untoward side effects were noted.