Tissue expansion of the facial nerve in an animal model.

The usefulness of tissue expanders in reconstructive surgery has been well established for skin, muscle, and fascia. There has been only anecdotal examination of tissue expansion techniques in peripheral neural tissue. Segmental sacrifice of cranial nerves is at times required in head and neck surgery. Nerve lengthening for re-anastomosis after segmental resection would be a valuable technique. This study used tissue expansion techniques in a porcine model to explore its effects on the peripheral facial nerve. Inflation of the expander in all animals resulted in no clinical signs of neural degeneration in the lengthened nerves. Microscopy of selected facial nerve specimens demonstrated histologic changes in the neural architecture without evidence of neural degeneration by electromyography. Although there was no significant statistical difference between the experimental and control arms of this study, expansion of neural tissue warrants further investigation, potentially offering a promising adjunct in reconstructive head and neck surgery.