Rehabilitation of congenital facial palsy with temporalis flap--case series and literature review.
BACKGROUND
Congenital facial paralysis is a rare disorder with an incidence of less than 1 in 1000 live births. Several surgical rehabilitation techniques have been described, such as free flaps or transpositions of the temporalis muscle. We report our experience of transposition of the temporalis muscle in this indication.


METHODS
Retrospective monocentric study between January 2005 and December 2009.


RESULTS
Five children (mean age at the surgery: 7.3 years, range 6-13) presenting with a congenital facial paralysis were treated by a temporalis muscle transposition during the considered period. An etiological assessment was achieved by carrying out a petrous bone CT, a cerebral and petrous MRI, and audiometric evaluation. Four patients out of 5 (80%) showed a satisfactory and stable functional outcome over time (average follow-up: 26 months).


CONCLUSIONS
Temporalis muscle transposition is a single-stage procedure, easily adapted for the pediatric condition of congenital facial paralysis. It is our opinion that this procedure needs to be carried out at the end of the pre-school period.
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Department, Armand Trousseau Hospital, Paris, France. nicolas.leboulanger@trs.aphp.fr
Nicolas
N
Leboulanger
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Maldent
Fergal
F
Glynn
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Charrier
Jean-Paul
JP
Monteil
Erea-Noël
EN
Garabedian
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005158:Facial Paralysis / Q000151:congenital* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013703:Temporal Muscle / Q000637:transplantation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome