Given that Covid-19 is triggering severe neurological complications like brain fog, encephalitis, or meningitis among the patients, the pandemic is also causing temporary facial paralysis known as Bell’s palsy among the patients.
There were earlier reports of many Covid-19 patients having complained about neurological complications like Guillain Barre Syndrome, dementia, meningitis, encephalitis, and even mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection, that they experienced after their discharge from hospitals.
Now, it has come to light that Covid-19 also contributes to Bell’s palsy or facial palsy that can be described as a facial nerve disorder. A patient visited the Zen Multispeciality Hospital at Chembur in north-east Mumbai, with one-sided paralysis of the face and had incomplete closure of eyes, difficulty in eating, dropping off the face, and other facial movements.
The patient was, however treated successfully with medicines and physiotherapy and was completely cured with 3 weeks of physiotherapy treatment. There have been many patients like him who have encountered this neurological complication during the second wave who was successfully treated at Zen Multispeciality Hospital.
Dr. Vinith Karanth, Consulting Physiotherapist at Zen Multispeciality Hospital said, “Bell’s palsy is the sudden weakness in the muscles on one half of the face due to inflammation to the facial nerve due to viral infection. The facial nerve controls the action of facial muscles and in Bell’s palsy, it stops sending signals to the facial muscles which lead to paralysis/ weakness of the muscles on a temporary basis and either of the sides can get affected. This viral infection can be due to impaired immunity which is commonly seen in patients post covid.”
“Since last year, there is a drastic increase in the number of Bell’s palsy cases coming to the physiotherapy department particularly patients with a history of covid-19 infection. In the last few months, around 3-4 post-Covid patients including young and old are appearing with this problem on a daily basis. Before Covid, we used to see such cases appearing very rarely 1-2 cases in a month. Even asymptomatic patients who have recovered from Covid can suffer from Bell’s palsy,” Dr Karanth said.