[The indications, technique and results of facio-facial anastomosis (author's transl)].

On the basis of our experiences with facio-facial nerve anastomosis in 62 patients, with and without various plastic procedures on skin and muscles, we can definitely say that results are not as satisfactory as those of nerve suture or grafting when performed as a direct operation on the facial nerve. This is obvious because only 50% of the fibres of the intact (donor) nerve are available for anastomosis. Consequently a facio-facial anastomosis should only be considered in those cases where a direct operation on the facial nerve is technically impossible or where a previous operation on the lesion has not produced the desired improvement and the anastomosis is done as an additional procedure. To achieve the most satisfactory result we would recommend performing plastic procedures on skin and muscle at the same stage. With this technique we were able to secure satisfactory results in 21 cases.