A Review of the Recent Advances in the Surgical Treatment of Longstanding Facial Paralysis

Facial paralysis affects all age categories and has devastating functional and psychological consequences. In selected cases, surgical treatment is the only treatment option and represents the major challenge to the facial reconstructive surgeon. The purpose of this book chapter was to review current principles of surgical management for this challenging population of patients. Various surgical approaches and techniques were described including reported outcomes. Although several factors affecting nerve regeneration has been described, their control still leads to unpredictable functional outcomes. Unreliable result prediction and lack of standardised outcome measures continue to be the main limitation in regards to timing and technique decision making. Our current review demonstrates that outcome results differences remain to be unclear and further research is warranted.