The precision of four commonly used surgical landmarks for locating the facial nerve in anterograde parotidectomy in humans.

In addition to using intra-operative facial nerve monitoring in helping to locate the position of the facial nerve in anterograde parotidectomy, numerous soft tissue and bony landmarks have been proposed to assist the surgeon in the early identification of this nerve. There is still dispute within the literature as to the most effective method, if any, of locating the nerve. The purpose of this study was to measure the distance (in twenty-six embalmed cadavers) from four of the most commonly used surgical landmarks to the main trunk of the facial nerve-the posterior belly of digastric muscle (PBDM), the tragal pointer (TP), the junction between the bony and cartilaginous ear canal (EAM) and the tympanomastoid suture (TMS).

Prospective clinical study of bleeding sites in idiopathic adult posterior epistaxis.

Objectives: The precise identification of the bleeding point is important to the efficient management of epistaxis. Our hypothesis was that the septum was the commonest bleeding site.

Study Design And Setting: This was a prospective clinical study of 50 consecutive adult idiopathic posterior epistaxis patients carried out in a busy teaching hospital.