Electrophysiologic evidence for extremely late sensory collateral reinnervation in humans.
We present a patient in whom unexpectedly late sensory recovery occurred over 5 years after removal of a 3-cm piece of the right inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) in tumor surgery of the mandible. For a year after surgery, the distribution of the mental nerve, the terminal branch of the IAN, was totally anesthetic. Thereafter, a gradual subjective sensory recovery occurred centripetally from the surrounding skin distributions. Five years after surgery, findings in electrophysiologic tests were consistent with a total lesion of the right IAN. Two years later, electrophysiologic tests gave, for the first time in humans, objective evidence for sensory collateral sprouting in trigeminal distribution.
Jääskeläinen
S K
SK
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Central Hospital of Turku, Finland.
Peltola
J K
JK
D000200:Action Potentials; D000328:Adult; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008339:Mandibular Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D008340:Mandibular Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D009232:Myxoma / Q000601:surgery; D009416:Nerve Regeneration; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D061221:Trigeminal Nerve Injuries