Facial nerve decompression for facial paralysis. Our specialist surgery can relieve the facial nerve.

In simple terms, and hopefully understandable to the medically-interested layperson, the central nerve pathway for motor control of the face runs from the skull base to behind the ear lobe across the parotid gland to the front. There the facial nerve splits, fanning out and supplying nerve impulses to different facial muscles.

There are several reasons why the nervus facialis may be compressed and narrowed along its anatomical path, which runs in part through the bony canal-like structures of the lateral skull base. Compression of the nerve can lead to partial or complete paralysis of the face or a lopsidedness of one side of the face.

Since this form of facial paralysis is usually limited to one side of the face, it can easily be confused with the facial paralysis of a stroke. The first step, therefore, is a neurological examination to provide us with the necessary information.

If your results clearly point to narrowing of a facial nerve, we can perform the correction with the facial nerve decompression surgery procedure. Our approach depends on the exact localisation of the compression site. It is usually very close to the anatomical structures of the ear or the lateral skull base.

We would like to emphasise once more that the surgery we provide to decompress the nervus facialis is a correction of facial paralysis, but that facial paralysis can result from any number of causes. There may be a quite different reason for your facial paralysis. In which case another form of treatment will be required.

Patient information:

As every human being is different and in medicine, because of its very nature, the success of a method cannot be guaranteed, all of our patients receive information before the treatment starts about the procedure, possible alternatives and even about possible risks and complications. Because we want to achieve the best possible care in partnership with you.