Research trends and perspectives on immediate facial reanimation in radical parotidectomy (Review)

For patients diagnosed with advanced malignant parotid tumour, radical parotidectomy with facial nerve sacrifice is part of the treatment. Multiple surgical techniques have been developed to cure facial paralysis in order to restore the function and aesthetics of the face. Despite the large number of publications over time on facial nerve reanimation, a consensus on the timing of the procedure or the donor graft selection has remained to be established. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify and analyse scientific publications on the reconstruction of the facial nerve of patients who underwent radical parotidectomy with facial nerve sacrifice. The analysis on the topic was conducted using the built-in tool of the Scopus database and VOSviewer software. The first 100 most cited articles were separately reviewed to address the aim of the study. No consensus was found regarding the recommended surgical techniques for facial nerve reanimation. The most used donor cranial nerves for transfer included the following: Masseteric branch of the V nerve, contralateral VII nerve with cross-face graft, the XI nerve and the XII nerve. The best timing of surgery is also controversial depending on pre-exiting pathology and degree of nerve degeneration. However, most of the clinical experience suggests facial nerve restoration immediately after the ablative procedure to reduce complications and improve patients' quality of life.