Gender affects recovery from facial paralysis

New research focusing on the recovery of facial paralysis has found that gender plays an important role in post-surgery repair. Female brains adapted more easily to the new nerve connections and recovered spontaneous smiling sooner, due to a difference in the way the masseteric nerve functions. The results will have implications for planning strategies for reconstruction surgery based on the differing recovery periods.

The research was conducted by the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the University of Navarra Hospital, who followed 114 patients of both sexes from 2000 onwards. Specialists made muscular transplants connected to the cruciate facial nerve (the unaffected side of the face) or to the masseteric nerve, responsible for the masseter muscle that functions in chewing, smiling and closing the mouth.

In the case of the female patient, the surgeon observed that; ‘a “remapping” of the brain function resulted, in a way that the woman managed the smile movement through using the masseteric nerve, triggered through the area of the brain corresponding to the facial nerve.’ The women’s capacity for adapting a cerebral area to new functions appeared to develop to a greater extent than in the male patients. In addition, it was discovered that women can achieve a smile independently of mastication.

The time period available for reconstructing facial paralysis is profoundly effected by these results. There is a limited amount time to carry out ‘effective direct neurotisations’ – successful connections to nerves other than the injured ones. According to Doctor Hontanilla, ‘men have about a year and a half from the beginning of the facial paralysis to be able to neurotise the facial musculature itself, while women have up to four years in order to neurotise or innervate and achieve a situation where these muscles function.’

Good news for female patients, who show ‘a greater defence of the muscular complex as it is susceptible to being re-innervated after a longer period of time’ and have a greater chance of achieving acceptable mobility and symmetry of the mouth.

Click here to read the full press release.

Published: Wednesday, 9th November 2011 by Ellen Haggan