ELL PALSY OR IDIOPATHIC FAcial paralysis, an acute weakness or paralysis of the facial nerve, has a lifetime risk of 1 in 60. 1 The annual incidence of Bell palsy is 20 to 30 per 100 000 population. 2 While 71% of untreated patients will completely recover and 84% will have complete or near normal recovery, 3 the remainder will have persistent moderate to severe weakness, facial contracture, or synkinesis. 1 Initial severity is associated with a poor prognosis with as few as 61% of cases of complete pareses and as many as 94% of cases of incomplete pareses having complete recovery, 3 usually within 4 months of presentation. 3,4 A herpes infection likely causes this disorder. [5][6][7][8][9] Swelling of the nerve at the meatal foramen has been observed intraoperatively, 10 and sampling of endoneurial fluid during nerve decompression for Bell palsy has yielded DNA of herpes sim-