Journal of Pediatric Neurology 2021; 19(06): 440-442
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1722210
Case Report

Bell's Palsy Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a 2-Year-Old Child

1   Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Birk Olson
1   Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Sunanda Gaur
2   Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
3   Department of Epidemiology, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
4   Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of NJ, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Dalya Chefitz
5   Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Mary Carayannopoulos
6   Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Priyanka Uprety
6   Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
,
Abdolreza Esfahanizadeh
7   Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disability, Child Health Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
› Author Affiliations
Funding Research reported in this publication was supported (in part) by the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institute of Health (NIH) under award number UL1TR003017. The content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Abstract

Bell's palsy (BP) is an acute, unilateral facial nerve palsy (FNP) that is a diagnosis of exclusion, sometimes associated with infectious causes. In this article, we described a previously healthy 2-year-old child patient who presented with left-sided facial droop, positive severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), positive SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin (Ig)-G antibody, and negative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) SARS-CoV-2 (PCR and serology). This is the second reported pediatric case of BP in the setting of SARS-CoV-2, and the first in a child without comorbidities. Due to the positive antibody test, we presented the idea that SARS-CoV-2 could be a triggering factor of the FNP, possibly occurring in the later stages of disease.



Publication History

Received: 05 November 2020

Accepted: 21 November 2020

Article published online:
27 January 2021

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