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Adult Facial Palsy Reconstruction: Dual innervation of gracilis muscle

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Abstract

Restoration of spontaneous, synchronous and powerful facial movement is the main aim of facial reanimation surgery. The gold standard surgical treatment for long-standing unilateral facial paralysis is a 2-stage reconstruction with cross-facial nerve graft (CFNG) followed by free muscle transfer. Although spontaneity and synchronicity is achieved with this technique, the power of contraction may be weaker than desired. The dual innervation of free gracilis muscle transfer aims to examine the effect of the simultaneous use of CFNG (to provide coordination) and masseteric nerve (to provide powerful contraction). The senior author has been performing the dual innervation since August 2012 on a selected number of patients and believes it is a useful method of reanimation on patients who have had other failed procedures, “heavy” faces and when an expedited re-animation is required or expected.

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Tzafetta, K., Sofos, S. (2020). Adult Facial Palsy Reconstruction: Dual innervation of gracilis muscle. In: Clinical Scenarios in Reconstructive Microsurgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94191-2_31-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94191-2_31-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94191-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94191-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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