Objective： To observe the clinical effect of acupuncture combined with intermediate frequency therapy by stages for bell palsy and its effect on surface electromyography(sEMG).Methods：Divided 60 cases of patients with bell palsy into the treatment group and the control group randomly，30 cases in each group.In acute stage(i.e.onset within 1 week)，patients in the two groups were treated with simple acupuncture.In recovery stage(i.e.after one week)，the control group was added with electroacu puncture，while the treatment group was additionally treated with intermediate frequency therapy based on the treatment of the control group.The two groups received treatment for four courses，seven days being one course.Observed and compared the clinicaleffect in the two groups，and compared the changes in the grading conditions of House-Brackmann(H-B)facial nerve function evaluation system and sEMG in the two groups before and after treatment.Results：The to taleffective rate was 93.3%in the treatment group and was 80.0%in the controlgroup，the difference being significant(P ＜ 0.05).After treatment，the grading condition of facial nerve function in the two groups was improved when compared with that before treatment respectively，the difference being significant( P ＜0.05).No significant difference was found in the comparison of the grading conditions between the two groups(P ＞ 0.05).After treatment，the sEMG evaluation of frontal muscles，buccinator muscles and orbicularis oris muscles were improved when compared with those before treatment respectively，the difference being significant( P ＜0.05).No significant difference was found in the comparison of the above sEMG evaluation between the two groups(P ＞ 0.05).After treatment，the RMS ratio of the frontalmuscles，buccinator muscles and orbicularis oris muscles of the affected side in the two groups was significantly increased when compared with that before treatment respectively，the difference being significant(P ＜ 0.05).In the comparison of the two groups，the improvement of the above indexes in the treatment group was better than that in the controlgroup( P ＜0.05).Conclusion：The therapy of acupuncture combined with intermediate frequency therapy by stages for bell palsy has a clear effect on the recovery of facial nerve function in patients，which can improve the sEMG of frontal muscles， buccinator muscles and orbicularis oris muscles of patients，and enhance the clinical curative effect.