Maxillofacial fractures management is considered a great
challenge to facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons. They
inquire adequate and systematic patient assessment to exclude
involvement of facial neurovascular structures and the airway
injuries. Types of fixation differ whether rigid or semi rigid
fixation is used according to the degree of comminusion, site
and shape of the fracture. The etiology of facial nerve palsy
include: Idiopathic, post traumatic, neoplastic, etc... The
traumatic injuries are the second most common, caused by
personnel assaults, accidental at work or due to road traffic
accidents.
Searching in the English written literature it is not mentioned
the outcome of primary traumatic facial nerve repair
combined with complex maxillofacial injuries. The aim of
the study is to investigate the long term functional outcome
of traumatic facial nerve and maxillofacial fractures reconstruction.
The study reviewed 16 patients with nerve injury and
varies types of maxillofacial fractures, at El Demerdash Ain
Shams University Hospital between June 2015 and October
2019. Only patients diagnosed with facial nerve main trunk
or its branches after examination were included in the study.
Only patients with followed-up data for at least 18 months
were included. All patients was examined in the post-operative
period and assessment was done using the House-Brackmann
classification 11 and CT facial bone Patients demographic,
history, physical and clinical examination, clinical photographs
and surgical procedures (number and type) and complications
were collected.
This study revealed that the long term follow-up for
patients with repaired facial nerve and varies maxillofacial
fractures had promising esthetic and functional with a mean
the post-operative objective House-Brackmann score analysis
was 2.56 (±0.51). Further multi centric study is suggested to
investigate the relation between the type of trauma, results
and different nerves involved and this could be achieved by
increasing the number of patients to be included in the future
study.