Surgical Management of Facial Nerve Injury

描述（由申请人提供）：面瘫是一个毁灭性的临床问题;迄今为止的管理策略仍然不足。长期的职业目标是通过更有效地恢复面部肌肉组织的有意义的运动来改善面瘫的临床治疗。 当前的基本科学目标是开发用于研究面神经再生的动物模型，以控制异常再生现象（轴突错误路由到不适当的肌肉目标），并使用药理学策略加速大鼠的面神经再生。长期的科学目标是在这个新开发的模型中利用新兴的周围神经再生策略，以增加在损伤或牺牲后到达面部肌肉组织的轴突的数量和目标准确性。联带运动（面部表情期间面部一个区域的无意运动）的相应减少以及整体更高的神经输入将改善临床面神经结果。 临床环境是一个忙碌的三级护理医院，有专门的面神经中枢和大量的患者患有这种罕见的疾病;研究环境是一个设备齐全的国家的最先进的研究设施内的初级医院和邻近的医院。学术环境是一个完整的奉献精神，以推进生物医学科学和病人护理，通过仔细研究和勤奋的调查，并为指导研究人员的支持。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Facial paralysis represents a devastating clinical problem; management strategies to date remain inadequate. The long term career objective is to improve the clinical management of facial paralysis, by more effectively restoring meaningful movement to the facial musculature. The immediate basic scientific goals are to develop an animal model for the study of facial nerve regeneration, to control the phenomenon of aberrant regeneration (misrouting of axons to an inappropriate muscle target), and to accelerate facial nerve regeneration in the rat using pharmacologic strategies. The long range scientific goals are to utilize emerging peripheral nerve regeneration strategies in this newly developed model to increase the number and target accuracy of axons arriving in the facial musculature after injury or sacrifice. The corresponding decrease in synkinesis (unintentional movement of one region of the face during facial expression), and overall higher neural input will improve clinical facial nerve outcomes. The clinical environment is a busy tertiary care hospital with a specialized facial nerve center and a large population of patients with this uncommon disorder; the research environment is a fully equipped state of the art research facility within the primary hospital and the adjacent hospital. The academic environment is one of complete dedication to advancing both biomedical science and patient care through careful study and diligent investigation, and of support for the mentored investigator.