Acupuncture to treat
Bell's palsy is one of the most commonly used methods in China. There are a variety of
acupuncture treatment options to treat
Bell's palsy in clinical practice. Since
Bell's palsy has three different path-stages (acute stage, resting stage and restoration stage), so whether acupuncture is effective in the different path-stages and which
acupuncture treatment is the best method are major issues in acupuncture clinical trials about
Bell's palsy. In this article, we report the design and protocol of a large sample multi-center randomized controlled trial to treat
Bell's palsy with acupuncture. There are five acupuncture groups, with four according to different path-stages and one not. In total, 900 patients with
Bell's palsy are enrolled in this study. These patients are randomly assigned to receive one of the following four treatment groups according to different path-stages, i.e. 1) staging acupuncture group, 2) staging acupuncture and
moxibustion group, 3) staging electro-acupuncture group, 4) staging acupuncture along yangming musculature group or non-staging acupuncture control group. The outcome measurements in this trial are the effect comparison achieved among these five groups in terms of House-Brackmann scale (Global Score and Regional Score), Facial Disability Index scale, Classification scale of
Facial Paralysis, and WHOQOL-BREF scale before randomization (baseline phase) and after randomization. The result of this trial will certify the efficacy of using staging acupuncture and
moxibustion to treat
Bell's palsy, and to approach a best
acupuncture treatment among these five different methods for treating
Bell's palsy.