IMMEDIATE FACIAL NERVE RECONSTRUCTION IN COMPLETE ANATOMICAL DISRUPTION USING A SURAL NERVE AUTOGRAFT AND AUTOLOGOUS FIBRIN GLUE
Keywords:
facial nerve, facial nerve reconstruction, autologous fibrin glue, sural nerve autograft, nerve coaptation, cerebellopontine angle schwannoma, House–Brackmann scale, Sunnybrook Facial Grading Scale, immediate nerve repairAbstract
A retrospective analysis included three patients who underwent retrosigmoid resection of cerebellopontine angle
schwannoma complicated by complete anatomical interruption of the facial nerve. In all cases, immediate reconstruction was
performed using an interposition sural nerve autograft with coaptation achieved by autologous fibrin glue. Facial nerve function was assessed using the House–Brackmann scale in the early postoperative period and at 6 and 12 months after surgery. Additional evaluation was performed using the Sunnybrook Facial Grading Scale. Immediate facial nerve reconstruction using a sural nerve autograft and autologous fibrin glue is a safe and effective technique that provides stable and clinically meaningful recovery of facial nerve function within the first postoperative year. The obtained results are comparable with international data and support the feasibility of this method in cases of complete anatomical facial nerve disruption
