Surgical rehabilitation of facial nerve paralysis.

Facial nerve paralysis is a rare and often temporary complication of otologic and neuro-otologic surgery. Associated ocular complications must be avoided to prevent visual loss. When reanastomosis or grafting of the facial nerve is not possible, the VII-XII anastomosis offers reliable reinnervation of the distal facial nerve. For patients whose paralysis has been present for many years, the temporalis muscle transfer provides excellent results. This approach has been proven to give reproducible, aesthetic results with the fewest number of operations.