Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
University Clinical Centre Ljubljana.
Folia Morphol (Warsz). 2020;79(4):863-866. doi: 10.5603/FM.a2020.0015. Epub 2020 Feb 19.
Damage to the great auricular nerve, with consequent clinical deficits, is a common surgical complication in facial aesthetic and in head and neck procedures such as parotidectomy, neck dissection, rhytidectomy and platysma flap operations. Hence, a thorough knowledge of nerve anatomy, particularly its potential variations, is critical in reducing the associated operative morbidity. Accordingly, we report an unusual variation of the anterior branch of the great auricular nerve noted in an 81-year-old female cadaver. The nerve was observed to course into the submandibular region anterior and superficial to the internal jugular vein, communicating with the cervical branch of the facial nerve, while independently innervating the platysma muscle. Although several anatomical variations of the branches of the cervical plexus have been documented, our report describes unique innervation of the platysma muscle by the great auricular nerve, which provides a new insight on the motor component of the nerve.
耳大神经损伤会导致临床缺损，这在面部美容和头颈部手术中很常见，如腮腺切除术、颈部解剖术、除皱术和颈阔肌皮瓣手术等。因此，深入了解神经解剖结构，特别是其潜在的变异，对于降低相关手术发病率至关重要。因此，我们报告了一例在 81 岁女性尸体中观察到的耳大神经前支的异常变异。该神经观察到位于颈内静脉前和浅层，进入下颌下区，与面神经颈支沟通，同时独立支配颈阔肌。尽管已经记录了颈丛分支的几种解剖变异，但我们的报告描述了耳大神经对颈阔肌的独特支配，这为神经的运动成分提供了新的认识。
