[Lengthening temporalis myoplasty for facial palsy reanimation after parotid surgery].

Aim of the study: Share our experience and our results of lengthening temporalis myoplasty (LTM) for facial palsy reanimation after parotid surgery.

Materials and methods: Study of 15 patients after they had had a lengthening temporalis myoplasty, in the same time or after a non conservative parotidectomy of facial nerve. 10 patients suffered from a parotid malignant tumor, one had a jugal epidermoid skin carcinoma invading the parotid, 2 patients had a facial palsy after removal of pleomorphic adenoma recurrence and two patients had a facial nerve schwannoma. 8 patients had a LTM surgery in the same time of the parotid tumoral removal.

Results: No recurrence was observed on the 11 patients who had a carcinoma (average follow up: 27 months). The LTM surgery enabled us to obtain good results at rest for 14 patients (93%) and an intermediate result for one person. The ability to smile was described as good for 10 patients (66.6%), intermediate for 4 of them (26.6%) and unsatisfying for 1 person (6,6%). In the group rehabilitation, the results observed are similar, for the patients who had one or two surgical steps. In 3 cases, we noticed an infectious complication, which led us to operate again. In the 8 cases within lengthening was performed in the same time as parotidectomy, there was no additionnal surgical difficulty.

Conclusion: LTM surgery is an efficient method of rehabilitation. If possible, it should be performed in the same time as tumor removal. As the operational places are different, tumor checking-up and observation are not disturbed by this kind of rehabilitation.