ORPHA:3020
Ramsay Hunt syndrome
Also known as: Facial nerve palsy due to VZV · Facial nerve palsy due to herpes zoster infection · Facial nerve paralysis due to VZV
Publications
2,190
Trials
2
Interventional, condition-specific
Researchers
794
Distinct authors in sample
Gene link
—
Readiness
2/6
Stages with a signal
Clinical definition (Orphanet)
A rare infectious disease characterized by herpes zoster oticus associated with peripheral facial nerve palsy, often also with other cranial nerve lesions. Patients present with a painful erythematous vesicular rash in and around one ear and facial paralysis on the same side. Other frequent manifestations include hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and nystagmus.
How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.
Cross-references
Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.
- MONDO:0005769
- UMLS:C0017409
- NCIT:C84763
Additional Mondo synonyms (5)
Herpes Zoster Oticus · Ramsay Hunt Syndrome · facial nerve palsy due to VZV · facial nerve palsy due to herpes zoster infection · facial nerve paralysis due to VZV
Research stages
Trial readiness signals
Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”
2/6 stages with a signal
An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.
- Gene identifiedNot found
No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build
- LiteraturePresent
2,190 matched papers (1,025 in last 10 years) Source
- Phenotype characterisedNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO
- Animal modelNot checked
Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance
- Orphan designationNot checked
FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet
- Interventional trialPresent
2 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (2 recruiting in sample)
Biology
Genes and phenotypes
Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.
Do we know what causes it?
Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.
No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.
Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)
Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.
Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)
Not enriched in this build.
Literature
Is anyone studying this?
2,190
2,190 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.
2,190 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).
1,025 in the last 10 years · low confidence
Phrase hits: 2,190 · MeSH hits: 0
Who's working on it?
794
Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.
Who's working on it?
People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.
- 01Kim SH4 papers · 2025
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02453, Korea.
Papers in Europe PMC - 02Chen J3 papers · 2025
The First School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
Papers in Europe PMC - 03Fujiwara T3 papers · 2024
Department of Public Health Research, Kurashiki Clinical Research Institute. Miwa 1-1-1, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, 710-8602 Japan; Systematic Review Workshop Peer Support Group (SRWS-PSG), Japan. Electronic address: t.fujiwarabi@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 04Jeong J3 papers · 2024
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea.
Papers in Europe PMC - 05Kim CH3 papers · 2022
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Research Institute of Medical Science, Konkuk University Medical Center, Konkuk University School of Medicine, 120-1 Neungdong-ro (Hwayang-dong), Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05030, Republic of Korea. ryomachang@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 06Yeo SG3 papers · 2024
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02453, Korea.
Papers in Europe PMC - 07Ananthapadmanabhan S2 papers · 2022
Department of Otolaryngology, Nepean Hospital, Kingswood, Sydney, NSW, 2747, Australia. saikrishnaanantha96@gmail.com.
Papers in Europe PMC - 08Ayani Y2 papers · 2024
Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Osaka 569-8686, Japan.
Papers in Europe PMC - 09Chang CM2 papers · 2026
Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, No. 138, Sheng Li Road, Tainan City, 70403, Taiwan.
Papers in Europe PMC - 10Chen S2 papers · 2026
Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Papers in Europe PMC
Clinical research
Is a treatment being tested?
2
interventional trials for this specific condition
2 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 2 currently recruiting in our sample.
Data as of 27 July 2026
2 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 82.4th percentile).
low confidence · 82.4th percentile (trials denominator)
Recruiting interventional trials
From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set
2 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.
- NCT05424302·RECRUITING·Effect of Peripheral Vestibular Disease Location on Outcomes Following Home-based Virtual Reality Vestibular Therapy
Conditions: Peripheral Vestibular Disorder · Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo · Meniere Disease · Vestibular Neuritis·Matched via name phrase
- NCT06542289·NOT YET RECRUITING·Safety and Effectiveness of the BlinkER System in Participants With Facial Nerve Palsy
Conditions: Bell's Palsy · Ramsay Hunt Syndrome · Lyme Disease · Facial Palsy·Matched via name phrase
Where to find support
We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:
India — NPRD
Last verified 2026-07-26This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.
Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.
How we counted this
Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.
"Ramsay Hunt syndrome" OR "Facial nerve palsy due to VZV" OR "Facial nerve palsy due to herpes zoster infection" OR "Facial nerve paralysis due to VZV" OR "Herpes Zoster Oticus"
ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):
"Ramsay Hunt syndrome" OR "Facial nerve palsy due to VZV" OR "Facial nerve palsy due to herpes zoster infection" OR "Facial nerve paralysis due to VZV" OR "Herpes Zoster Oticus"
Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).
Study-type breakdown: 2 interventional · 0 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.
Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase
Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov
Confidence reasoning
- Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
- No synonyms dropped by stoplist
- No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
- Publication count (2190) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity
Ingested 2026-07-26T22:02:07.200Z