Facial paralysis correction surgery aims to repair the loss of nerve action by congenital, tumor, traumatic or degenerative factors (pathologies or infections). The non-stimulation of the nerves (partial or total) result in non-stimulation of muscle fibers, consequently, stop of muscle action and loss of movement. Sometimes the nerve is intact, but the muscle atrophied.
If affected by this condition, you probably won’t be able to move your eyebrows, lips, or other muscles on your face.
Facial paralysis can affect your smile and your overall appearance. If you or someone you love has this condition, you should seek help in rebuilding balance, symmetry, symmetrical movements, and the ability to smile.
Facial nerve paralysis leads to deformities in facial expression and thus to major social impacts. The smile is one of the alterations that patients with paralyzed face complain about the most, and this is the most requested correction in this type of reconstruction.
Facial Paralysis Causes
Thermal shock, trauma stemming from accidents, AIDS, herpes, among other problems can cause facial paralysis. It occurs when there is loss of movement of one or both sides of the face, caused by the injury of the nerve of the face. From then on, the smile becomes swayed, the eyes close with difficulty, the eyebrows are paralyzed, and the mouth loses the function of retaining saliva.
In addition to the problem producing a very striking and difficult-to-solve deformity, it can also cause the victim to have the ability to express himself compromised. Depending on what has caused facial paralysis, plastic facial resuscitation surgery may provide, within its limitations, improvement in the patient’s condition and hope for aesthetic and functional improvement.
Facial paralysis correction surgery techniques
The technique of facial paralysis correction surgery has effectively treated facial paralysis resulting from traumatic musculocutaneous amputations or tumors, which include skin, nerve and muscle. These amputated areas, in turn, are replaced by muscles and covered with skin, recovering the functional and sensory part of the skin.
In the reparative surgery of facial paralysis, the skin and muscles are removed from the back and the muscle used is the large dorsal muscle, which allows us to carry more than five to nine muscle subsegments for facial resuscitation, trapped only in the same artery, vein and nerve.
All handling with arteries, veins and nerves is done by microscope and a material specialized in reconstructive surgery is used. Correction surgery for facial paralysis can be performed at any time, as long as it is well indicated. Each case is a case, and the benefit risks should be analyzed.
Other advance techniques
Muscle transfer: This technique involves transferring muscles from one part of the body to another—usually from the face, neck, or leg—to the face. Some of the associated muscles and tendons that are often transferred are temporal, digastric and graceful (gracillis).,
Nerve grafting: This technique includes transferring nerves from different parts of the body to the face to ensure that it can have greater movement—and even sensitivity—on the face, which will allow you to have better control of facial muscles. These may include maseterinnerve graft, a crossed nerve graft, hypoglossal nerve graft for facial nerve, among others.
