title: Communications Between the Trigeminal Nerve and the Facial Nerve in the Face: A Systematic Review.
abstract: The aim of the article is to elucidate the communications between the trigeminal nerve and facial nerve in the face. In a PubMed search, 328 studies were found using the terms 'trigeminal nerve, facial nerve, and communication.' The abstracts were read and 39 full-text articles were reviewed. Among them, 11 articles were analyzed. In the studies using dissection, the maxillary branch (V2) had the highest frequency (95.0% ± 8.0%) of communication with the facial nerve, followed by the mandibular branch (V3) (76.7% ± 38.5%). The ophthalmic branch (V1) had the lowest frequency of communication (33.8% ± 19.5%). In a Sihler stain, all of the maxillary branches and mandibular branches had communications with the facial nerve and 85.7% (12/14 hemifaces) of the ophthalmic branches had communications. The frequency of communications between the trigeminal nerve and facial nerve were significantly higher (P = 0.00, t-test) in the studies using a Sihler stain (94.7% ± 1.1%) than the studies using dissection (76.9 ± 35.8). The reason for the significantly higher frequency of trigeminal-facial communication in the studies using a Sihler stain is because of the limitation of the Sihler stain itself. This technique cannot differentiate the motor nerves from sensory nerves at the periphery, and a crossover can be misinterpreted as communication near to nerve terminal.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Plastic Surgery †Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Su Cheol
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ju Sung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D005154:Facial Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008340:Mandibular Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D008442:Maxillary Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009882:Ophthalmic Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*