LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF NERVE-CONDUCTION VELOCITY IN CROSS-FACE NERVE CRAFTING FOR THE TREATMENT OF FACIAL PARALYSIS

Motor nerve conduction velocity in a sural nerve graft crossing the fa ce for the treatment of facial paralysis was measured postoperatively for more than 3 years. Forty-three cases of free gracilis muscle trans plantation combined with a cross-face nerve graft were evaluated. The cross-face nerve graft was stimulated at two sites more than 5 cm apar t by bipolar stimulating electrodes, and conduction velocity was calcu lated by dividing the length of this segment by the difference between the latencies of the evoked action potentials recorded from the graft ed muscle. A tendency toward increase in motor nerve conduction veloci ty was noticed even 3 years after the sural nerve graft. This suggests that the grafted nerve has the potential to recover over a long perio d of time. The average velocity in measurements after the third postop erative year was 40.5 +/- 6.2 m/s (mean +/- SD), which corresponds to the lower limit of the normal value for the sural or facial nerve.