Yu BY, Cen LS, Chen T, Yang TH. Bell’s palsy after inactivated COVID-19 vaccination in a patient with history of recurrent Bell’s palsy: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(27): 8274-8279 [PMID: 34621891 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i27.8274]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Bin-Yan Yu, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine), No. 54 Youdian Road, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China. 20103034@zcmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Clinical Neurology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2021; 9(27): 8274-8279 Published online Sep 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i27.8274
Bell’s palsy after inactivated COVID-19 vaccination in a patient with history of recurrent Bell’s palsy: A case report
Bin-Yan Yu, Lu-Sha Cen, Ting Chen, Tian-Hong Yang
Bin-Yan Yu, Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine), Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China
Lu-Sha Cen, Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China
Ting Chen, Department of Ultrasonography, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China
Tian-Hong Yang, Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Yu BY and Cen LS reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Chen T interpreted the data; Yang TH analyzed and interpreted the testing findings; all authors approved the final article and assured all the questions regarding the accuracy of the article.
Supported byZhejiang Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 2020ZT001.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin-Yan Yu, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine), No. 54 Youdian Road, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China. 20103034@zcmu.edu.cn
Received: June 13, 2021 Peer-review started: June 13, 2021 First decision: June 25, 2021 Revised: June 28, 2021 Accepted: July 28, 2021 Article in press: July 28, 2021 Published online: September 26, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND
With rapid and extensive administration of inactivated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine to the general population in China, it is crucial for clinicians to recognize neurological complications or other side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccination.
CASE SUMMARY
Here we report the first case of Bell’s palsy after the first dose of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine in China. The patient was a 36-year-old woman with a past history of Bell’s palsy. Two days after receiving the first dose of the Sinovac Life Sciences inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, the patient developed right-side Bell’s palsy and binoculus keratoconjunctivitis. Prednisone, artificial tears and fluorometholone eye drops were applied. The patient’s symptoms began to improve by day 7 and resolved by day 54.
CONCLUSION
As mRNA COVID-19 vaccine trials reported cases of Bell’s palsy as adverse events, we should pay attention to the occurrence of Bell’s palsy after inactivated COVID-19 vaccination. A history of Bell’s palsy, rapid increase of immunoglobulin M and immunoglobin G-specific antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 may be risk factors for Bell‘s palsy after COVID-19 vaccination.
Core Tip: Bell’s palsy has been reported as an adverse event in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccine trials, but no cases have been seen following administration of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. Here we report a case of Bell’s palsy in a patient with a history of recurrent Bell’s palsy following one dose of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. Because of a rapid increase of immunoglobin M- and immunoglobin G-specific antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and keratoconjunctivitis of both eyes after vaccination, we assumed that the humoral immune system was intensively activated, causing local inflammation of the facial nerve and cornea. A history of Bell’s palsy and rapid increase of specific antibodies may be risk factors for Bell’s palsy after COVID-19 vaccination.
