Facial nerve is injured during parotid surgery. Best management would be:
Immediate repair
Repair after 1 week
Repair after waiting for paial recovery of nerve
Do nothing, sent to higher centre
Ans is 'a' i.e. Immediate repair During mastoidectomy, when the facial nerve is injured, it is immediately explored. Injury to greater than 50% of the neural diameter of the facial nerve is addressed either with primary reanastomosis or reconstructed with the use of a nerve graft. Complete recovery of nerve function is uncommon in these cases.