Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A.
Statistics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A.
Laryngoscope. 2021 Jan;131(1):17-24. doi: 10.1002/lary.28560. Epub 2020 Feb 25.
Dysphagia is common following facial nerve injury; however, research is sparse regarding swallowing-related outcomes and targeted treatments. Previous animal studies have used eye blink and vibrissae movement as measures of facial nerve impairment and recovery. The purpose of this study was to create a mouse model of facial nerve injury that results in dysphagia to enhance translational research outcomes.
Prospective animal study.
Twenty C57BL/6J mice underwent surgical transection of the main trunk (MT) (n = 10) or marginal mandibular branch (MMB) (n = 10) of the left facial nerve. Videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) assays for drinking and eating were performed at baseline and 14 days postsurgery to quantify several deglutition-related outcome measures.
VFSS analysis revealed that MT transection resulted in significantly slower lick and swallow rates during drinking (P ≤ .05) and significantly slower swallow rates and longer inter-swallow intervals during eating (P ≤ .05), congruent with oral and pharyngeal dysphagia. After MMB transection, these same VFSS metrics were not statistically significant (P > .05).
The main finding of this study was that transection of the facial nerve MT leads to oral and pharyngeal stage dysphagia in mice; MMB transection does not. These results from mice provide novel insight into specific VFSS metrics that may be used to characterize dysphagia in humans following facial nerve injury. We are currently using this surgical mouse model to explore promising treatment modalities such as electrical stimulation to hasten recovery and improve outcomes following various iatrogenic and idiopathic conditions affecting the facial nerve.
NA Laryngoscope, 131:17-24, 2021.
面神经损伤后常发生吞咽困难；然而，关于吞咽相关结果和针对性治疗的研究甚少。先前的动物研究已经使用眨眼和触须运动作为面神经损伤和恢复的衡量标准。本研究的目的是创建一种导致吞咽困难的面神经损伤小鼠模型，以增强转化研究结果。
前瞻性动物研究。
20 只 C57BL/6J 小鼠接受左侧面神经主干（MT）（n = 10）或下颌缘支（MMB）（n = 10）的手术横断。在基线和手术后 14 天进行视频荧光透视吞咽研究（VFSS）以量化几项吞咽相关的结果测量。
VFSS 分析表明，MT 横断导致在饮水时舔舐和吞咽速度明显减慢（P≤.05），在进食时吞咽速度明显减慢且吞咽间隔时间延长（P≤.05），与口腔和咽部吞咽困难一致。MMB 横断后，这些相同的 VFSS 指标没有统计学意义（P>.05）。
本研究的主要发现是面神经 MT 的横断导致小鼠出现口腔和咽部阶段的吞咽困难；MMB 横断则没有。这些来自小鼠的结果提供了新的见解，即特定的 VFSS 指标可用于描述面神经损伤后人类的吞咽困难。我们目前正在使用这种手术小鼠模型来探索有前途的治疗方式，例如电刺激，以加速恢复并改善各种影响面神经的医源性和特发性疾病的结果。
无 喉科学杂志，131：17-24，2021。
