Facial nerve surgery in the 19th and early 20th centuries: The evolution from crossover anastomosis to direct nerve repair

The historical aspects of facial nerve(FN)anatomy and of Bell's palsy have long been favorite topics of otologic historians. Little attention has been paid, however, to the evolution of FN surgery, a subject with a remarkably rich and engaging history. In the early 13th century, Roland, an Italian s urgeon, used a red hot iron to coapt severed nerve endings. Tn the 17th cen tury, Ferrara, another Italian, sutured injured nerves with tortoise tendon dipped in hot red wine. It was not until the late 19th century that periph eral nerve suture became a subject of serious scientific study. Although it is ironic, the course of events suggests that the evolution of FN repair w as greatly stimulated by the development of the modern mastoid operation. W hereas the simple mastoid operation practiced by Wilde (1853) and others ca rried little risk of FN injury, more adventuresome procedures such as radic al mastoidectomy (Kessel, 1885) carried a much greater risk. The abundance of iatrogenic palsies during this era undoubtedly did much to motivate surg eons to seek a better means of restoring facial animation. Most surgeons wo uld be surprised to learn that crossover anastomoses predated direct nerve repair by nearly half a century. In 1879, the German surgeon Drobnik perfor med the first facial-spinal accessory anastomosis. Over the next two decade s, numerous articles were written (most notably by Sir Charles Balance and Harvey Gushing) on crossovers between the FN and cranial nerves TX, X, XI, and XII. Although a few tentative attempts at reapproximating severed FNs t ook place in the first two decades of this century, it was not until 1925 t hat an actual suture repair of an intratemporal injury was undertaken. This feat was first accomplished by the famous hand surgeon Sterling Bunnell an d shortly thereafter by the otolaryngologist Robert Martin. The evolution o f FN surgery in the days predating the operating microscope is a rich tapes try of colorful personalities and clashing egos, which saw promising advanc es relegated to obscurity and some previously obscure techniques become pro gressively more promising.