Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study the chronological changes of antidromically evoked facial nerve response after facial nerve injury. The responses in guinea pigs were recorded between the geniculate ganglion and the stylomastoid foramen after sectioning the facial nerve either totally or partially (half of the nerve) at the geniculate ganglion. Forty-eight hours after total transection, responses almost completely disappeared, and reappeared after 3 weeks. The latencies of the recovered triphasic waves were prolonged after three weeks, but gradually shortened thereafter, and recovered to an almost normal range 2 months after transection. The latencies of the responses one day after partial transection had already significantly been prolonged. From the 3rd to 7th day, the latencies prolonged further, and shortened by the 14th day. From this study, it was shown that this response could be applied to observation of the recovery course of facial nerve injury and to the early diagnosis of facial nerve palsy.
