Table 3.

Cumulative counts of alternative diagnoses made on 7, 14, 30, and 90-day follow-up for 356 patients^* with an initial ED diagnosis of Bell’s palsy.

	7-day	14-day	30-day	90-day
Diagnosis	No.	No.	No.	No.	%
Ischemic stroke	53	62	77	98	27.3
Intracranial hemorrhage	4	4	5	10	2.8
Subarachnoid hemorrhage	0	0	0	2	0.6
Brain tumor	0	1	2	4	1.1
Central nervous system infection	4	5	7	13	3.6
Human immunodeficiency virus infection	3	6	7	19	5.3
Guillain-Barre syndrome	23	30	37	39	10.9
Lyme disease	1	0	0	3	0.8
Otitis media or mastoiditis	20	38	56	86	24.0
Herpes zoster	34	57	69	83	23.2
Total	142	204	261	358

^*Two patients received more than one alternative diagnosis.