WASHINGTON – Facial nerve dysfunction affected 23% of 43 children who had parotidectomies in a single-center study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.
The findings suggest that facial nerve dysfunction after parotidectomy is common enough in children to merit preoperative counseling, said Dr. James A. Owusu of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Facial nerve dysfunction rates reported in the literature range from 9% to 60% in adults after parotidectomy, but the condition has not been well studied in children.
Dr. Owusu and his colleagues reviewed the charts of 43 patients younger than age 18 years who underwent parotidectomies at a single tertiary care center between 1999 and 2011. Patients who only had parotid biopsies and those without follow-up data were excluded from the study. The average age of the patients was 4 years, and 58% were girls.
Postoperatively, 33 children (77%) had normal nerve function and 10 (23%) had abnormal nerve function. One patient experienced immediate facial nerve paralysis and nine experienced immediate facial nerve paresis. The marginal mandibular branch was affected in seven patients, the frontal branch in one patient, the buccal branch in one, and both marginal mandibular and frontal branches in one.
The most common diagnosis that led to a parotidectomy was atypical mycobacterium infection (37%), followed by branchial cleft abnormality (19%) and lymphangioma (16%). Nearly all (41) of the children underwent superficial parotidectomy; 2 underwent total parotidectomy.
"Age, gender, and pathologic diagnosis were not predictive of postoperative nerve dysfunction," Dr. Owusu said.
In patients with paresis, full nerve recovery occurred within 1 month for 2 patients, within 2 months for 1 patient, within 6 months for 3 patients, and within 10 months for 2 patients. Final nerve status was not available for 1 patient.
The study was limited by its small size and focus on a single center, Dr. Owusu said.
Dr. Owusu had no financial conflicts to disclose.