Intratemporal Suture of the Facial Nerve

Anastomosis of the facial nerve was done in 1898 by Faure,1who joined the eleventh to the distal end of the paralyzed seventh nerve. In 1903, Kortex2first did a hypoglossofacial anastomosis. Many others did similar work, and there may have been earlier cases, but they were not published. The objections to these methods have been atrophy of the trapezius muscle and tongue, respectively, plus associated movements of the face and shoulder or the face and tongue. In 1910, Grant3endeavored to prevent atrophy by anastomosing the descendens noni to the distal end of the eleventh nerve. I have not found any reports of intratemporal end-to-end anastomosis of the facial nerve except the one successfully done by Bunnell.4Alt gave a method of opening the facial canal, and Ney5reported a method of decompression of the nerve and suture worked out on the cadaver. Ney