Korean Medicine for Treating Facial Palsy: - A Literature Review of Case Reports

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze case reports on and to study Korean medicine treatments of facial palsy.

Methods: Studies published after 2000 were selected by searching for the terms "facial palsy" and "Guanwasa" in four databases and case reports using Korean medicine moderating variables were extracted by two individual researchers.

Results: The House Brackmann (H-B) Scale (23 times, 65.7%), and Yanagihara Grading Scale (Y-system) (22 times, 62.8%) were used to assess facial palsy. All case reports used acupuncture, while 19 case reports (51.3%) used electro-acupuncture, and 8 case reports (21.6%) used pharmacopuncture. Main meridian points used were ST6, ST4, GB14, TE23, LI20, BL2. Thirty-two case reports used herbal medicine (86.4%) and both Ligigeopoong-san, Bojunglkgi-tang were used frequently.

Conclusion: To treat facial palsy, acupuncture was mainly used in conjunction with electro-acupuncture and pharmacopuncture. Most case reports also used herbal medicine.