Craniofacial Surgery

Facial Reanimation

Facial reanimation is the process of surgically correcting facial paralysis; congenital or acquired through trauma or disease. Facial paralysis can be a consequence of traumatic facial nerve injury, iatrogenic causes, malignancy, congenital syndromes, and viral infections. Prolonged paralysis can result in ocular complications, articulation difficulties, impaired feeding, and difficulty in conveying emotion through expressive movement. Dynamic procedures aim to restore some voluntary movement and, thus, are more desirable. Numerous reanimation techniques are available to restore function and are based on the cause of the facial paralysis, type of injury, its location, and the anticipated duration.

These methods are broadly classified into 4 types as follows: (1) neural methods, (2) musculofascial transpositions, (3) microneurovascular transfer (4) facial plastic procedures, and (5) prosthetics.

The static facial surgeries include:

• Fascia lata sling &Static sling
• A dynamic lower lip tightening& Eyelid procedures

The dynamic facial reanimation surgeries include:

• Digastric transfer
• Temporalis Muscle techniques
• Nerve repairs, transfers and grafting
• Free muscle flaps