Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34184737›Full record

ArticleFamily practice2022

Facial paralysis and vaccinations: a vaccine adverse event reporting system review.

Salma Ahsanuddin, Wissam Nasser, Savannah C Roy, Roman Povolotskiy, Boris Paskhover

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Family practice, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Bilateral peripheral facial palsy: A rare case report.Journal of oral and maxillofacial pathology : JOMFP · 2023
    Article
  6. Co-VAN study: COVID-19 vaccine associated neurological diseases- an experience from an apex neurosciences centre and review of the literature.Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia · 2023
    Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Salma AhsanuddinDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9081-2832
Wissam NasserDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Savannah C RoyDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Roman PovolotskiyDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Boris PaskhoverDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundVaccinations are a cornerstone of preventative medicine in the USA. However, growing concerns regarding facial nerve palsy following vaccination exist.

objectiveThis study aims to assess the occurrence of facial palsy as reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database.

methodsA retrospective analysis of the VAERS database was performed for cases of 'Facial Palsy', 'Bell's Palsy', 'Facial Paralysis' and 'Ramsay Hunt Syndrome' between 2009 and 2018. Subgroup analysis was performed to determine gender, age, history of facial palsy, type of vaccine used, number of days until onset of symptoms and overall facial palsy rate.

resultsNine hundred and forty-four entries met our inclusion criteria with 961 vaccine administrations resulting in facial paralysis. Facial palsy following vaccinations was evenly distributed across all age cohorts with two peaks between 60 and 74 years old and between 0 and 14 years old. Most patients were female (N = 526, 55.7%) without a reported history of facial palsy (N = 923, 97.8%). In 2009, reported incidence rate was 0.53%, as compared with 0.23% in 2018. The influenza vaccine had the greatest number of cases (N = 166, 17.3%), followed by the varicella (N = 87, 9.1%) and human papillomavirus vaccines (N = 47, 4.9%).

conclusionsWith the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and recent approvals of the vaccinations, there is growing concern of facial palsy following vaccination. Although it is a known adverse event following vaccination, the likelihood of facial palsy following vaccination is low, with only 0.26% of overall reported cases over a 10-year span.

Indexed as

Bell PalsyCOVID-19Facial ParalysisInfluenza VaccinesChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansRetrospective StudiesSARS-CoV-2VaccinationInfluenza VaccinesAdverse drug reaction reporting systemsBell palsyfacial nervefacial paralysisiatrogenic diseasevaccination

Identifiers

PMID34184737
PMCPMC8344709
OpenAlexW3173455140

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.