AIM: To study the effect of different rehabilitation training in the treatment of idiopathic facial palsy. METHODS: Totally 145 patients with idiopathic facial palsy were assigned into training group and control group according to the severity of facial palsy, for a randomized controlled comparison in clinic. The time when the patients began to recover and the time until the patients completely recovered were compared between the training group and control group as well as recovery rate and complication rate. RESULTS: The mild patients in the training and control groups began to recover after 2.1 +/- 0.7 weeks and 2.4 +/- 0.9 weeks, completely recovered at the end of 3.8 +/- 1.2 weeks and 4.2 +/- 1.1 weeks, and there was no significant difference (p > 0.05). For the mild patients, the recovery rates were 100% in both groups, and no complication occurred. The time when the moderate patients began to recover and the time until the patients completely recovered were 4.1 +/- 1.3 and 7.2 +/- 1.9 weeks in the training group, and 5.5 +/- 1.4 and 9.3 +/- 1.7 weeks in the control group, and significant differences were found between the two groups (p < 0.05). The recovery rates of the moderate patients were 93% and 87% in the two groups without significance (p > 0.05), and there was only one case of complication in the two groups. For the severe patients, the recovery rate in the training group was 80% (24/30), significantly higher than that in the control group (52%, 13/25) (Chi2 = 4.856, p < 0.05), while the complication rate was lower in the former (13%, 4/30; 48%, 12/25) (Chi2 = 5.06, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: For the patients with idiopathic facial palsy, rehabilitation training can shorten the recovery time, increase the recovery rate and reduce the occurrence of complication for the moderate and sever patients with idiopathic facial palsy, but not for the mild ones.

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