RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The peripheral face palsy (PFP) is the commonest acute cranial neuropathy. The PFP has a showy clinical pattern which contrasts with a favorable course. Our objective was to determine the sensitivity and specificity for the nervous excitability test (NET) with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and the time required to obtain face symmetry. METHODS: An analytical cross-sectional study was made in 22 patients with PFP. The goal was the time (days) to obtain face symmetry. The sensitivity and specificity was carried out. RESULTS: A sensitivity and specificity of the NET was of 100 %. The correlation corrected by sex and age between both variables was 0.89. The average in days of recovery was smaller in those with a positive NET (p < 0.05) test. CONCLUSIONS: The test of nervous excitability for PFP with TENS is safe and simple to use in primary care and urgencies services.