Rare Presentation of A Unilateral Bell’s Palsy Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

Abstract

Bell’s palsy is defined by an acute peripheral facial palsy of unknown cause. It was rarely reported in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines. We report the case of a healthy 26-years-old male patient who presented an acute onset of a left Bell’s palsy 6 days after the administration of the first dose of COVID-19 BNT16b2 mRNA vaccine. The clinical examination found grade III left facial palsy with no other signs, with normal audiometry, impedancemetry, and Schirmer test. The patient was treated with corticosteroids and ocular protection. After a follow-up of 3 weeks, there was a regression of the facial palsy after the treatment. Bell’s palsy following the administration of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is a rare adverse event described in the literature. Two similar cases to ours were described and adopted the same conduct with did with good results. Studies showed that there was a significantly higher incidence of Bell’s palsy following the administration of the vaccine compared to the general population. A better knowledge of these adverse events (AEs) will help monitor patients with this presentation. More studies could be needed to have an assessment of the incidence of these AEs and confirm the findings of certain studies.