K Scheller1, C Scheller. 1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Facial Plastic Surgery, Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, Ernst-Grube-Strasse 40, 06120 Halle (S.), Germany. konstanze.weinzierl@medizin.uni-halle.de
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Animal tests, retro- and prospective clinical trials in neurosurgical departments have shown a beneficial effect of nimodipine on the preservation and recovery of facial and acoustic nerve function following vestibular schwannoma surgery. Encouraged by these positive results a pilot-study of nimodipine treatment in patients with a peripheral facial nerve (FN) paresis following maxillofacial surgery was performed. The rate and time of FN recovery were analysed and compared with the results in the literature. METHODS: Thirteen patients (n = 13) suffering from a moderate (1/13) up to a severe (12/13) peripheral FN paresis after maxillofacial surgery were treated with orally administered nimodipine. The anatomical main course of the FN was preserved in all patients with a 2nd to 3rd degree of Sunderland-injury (Sunderland, 1951). After no evidence of a spontaneous regeneration had shown, oral medication with nimodipine was started as an "off-label" use. RESULTS: An improvement of the FN function correlated to the start of the vasoactive medication and as a consequence a recovery of the FN function up to House-Brackmann (HB) grade I°-II° was observed in all the patients within a period of 2 months after the beginning of treatment (p = 0.00027). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical observations in these patients suggest a positive effect of nimodipine on the acceleration of peripheral FN regeneration after surgically caused trauma. The results of this pilot-study are very promising. A prospective study with a larger number of patients is planned to approve the beneficial effect of nimodipine on the peripheral FN in maxillofacial or otorhinolaryngological surgery.
BACKGROUND: Animal tests, retro- and prospective clinical trials in neurosurgical departments have shown a beneficial effect of nimodipine on the preservation and recovery of facial and acoustic nerve function following vestibular schwannoma surgery. Encouraged by these positive results a pilot-study of nimodipine treatment in patients with a peripheral facial nerve (FN) paresis following maxillofacial surgery was performed. The rate and time of FN recovery were analysed and compared with the results in the literature. METHODS: Thirteen patients (n = 13) suffering from a moderate (1/13) up to a severe (12/13) peripheral FN paresis after maxillofacial surgery were treated with orally administered nimodipine. The anatomical main course of the FN was preserved in all patients with a 2nd to 3rd degree of Sunderland-injury (Sunderland, 1951). After no evidence of a spontaneous regeneration had shown, oral medication with nimodipine was started as an "off-label" use. RESULTS: An improvement of the FN function correlated to the start of the vasoactive medication and as a consequence a recovery of the FN function up to House-Brackmann (HB) grade I°-II° was observed in all the patients within a period of 2 months after the beginning of treatment (p = 0.00027). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical observations in these patients suggest a positive effect of nimodipine on the acceleration of peripheral FN regeneration after surgically caused trauma. The results of this pilot-study are very promising. A prospective study with a larger number of patients is planned to approve the beneficial effect of nimodipine on the peripheral FN in maxillofacial or otorhinolaryngological surgery.
Authors: Eva Herzfeld; Christian Strauss; Sebastian Simmermacher; Kaya Bork; Rüdiger Horstkorte; Faramarz Dehghani; Christian Scheller Journal: Int J Mol Sci Date: 2014-10-14 Impact factor: 5.923