Cross-face grafting in facial paralysis

U. Fisch

I report the two-year follow-up results obtained by cross-face grafting in seven patients. The advantages of the method, ie, reduction of innervation of the healthy side of the face and restoration of emotional movements of the paralyzed side, are counterbalanced by the long delay in reinnervation and the limited number of motor fibers available for matched contralateral diversion. For this reason, cross-face grafting should still be considered as an experimental stage and should not be used in an indiscriminate way to achieve symmetry of emotional movements in irreversible unilateral facial palsy.