[Clinical analysis of transcranial facial nerve bridging with interpositional graft for the treatment of facial nerve injury]

Abstract

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the effectiveness of transcranial facial nerve bridging in the treatment of facial nerve dysfunction. Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 27 patients with facial nerve dysfunction who underwent transcranial facial nerve bridging at the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital affiliated with Fudan University from 2017 to 2022. The main collected data includes the patient's age, gender, primary lesion, damaged location, interval from facial paralysis to surgery, and preoperative and postoperative House-Brackmann（HB） scale for facial nerve function. Statistical comparisons were made between the average HB level of patients before and after surgery. Results:A total of 27 patients included 17 males and 10 females. The average age of patients during surgery is（42.50±3.38） years old. Primary lateral skull base diseases include trauma（n=3）, tumors（n=22）, and infections（n=2）. The duration of facial paralysis varies from 6 months to 5 years. Statistics analysis has found that the average postoperative HB score of patients who underwent transcranial facial nerve bridging was significantly lower at（3.750 ± 0.183） compared to preoperative（4.875±0.168）. The proportion of patients with good facial nerve function increased significantly from 7.4% before surgery to 42.9% after surgery. Conclusion:Transcranial facial nerve bridging surgery with interpositional graft has a significant effect on improving facial nerve function in patients with facial nerve injury. Further research is still needed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of this surgery, to determine the optimal patient selection criteria and postoperative rehabilitation strategies.

Keywords: facial nerve injury; neural transplantation; transcranial facial nerve bridging.