CLINICAL STUDY OF FACIAL NERVE INJURY AFTER TMJ SURGERY

악관절 수술후 안면신경 손상에 대한 임상적 연구

Authors have studied retrospectively the facial nerve injury after TMJ surgery through the preauricular approach routine. The study material used was 4 patients of all 113 patients who were diagnosed as internal derangement and have been operated from March 1989 to February 1991 in Youngdong severance hospital, and were induced postoperatived facial nerve injury. The patient group who had the postoperative injured facial nerve was recognized degree of injury using the diagnostic method, Electromyography(EMG) and Nerve conduction test(NCT) which are used widely at present and was treated as conservative care and we identified the recovery time as the same method. The results as follows : 1. The meticulous care and precious surgical technique are needed in both operation and postoperation. During the TMJ surgery, the excessive retraction of the flap and frequent use of nerve stimulator and electric surgical knife should be avoided as possible and postoperative hematoma and swelling should be minimized. 2. The 4 patients were experienced with the postoperative facial nerve injury of all 133 patients who had been operated the TMJ surgery through the routine preauricular approach on our hospital. And the incidence of postoperative facial nerve injury happened was about 0.3% and its incidence was relatively low comparing with any other previous reports. 3. EMG and NCT were considered as useful methods which can diagnose the nerve injury objectively and identified the effect of treatment and recovery time. 4. The faical nerve-injured patients who were induced postoperatively after TMJ surgery, were diagnosed as second-degree nere injury through the EMG and NCT. And the patient group was treated well as conservative physical therapy for about 2 to 4 months.