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够充分。长期的职业目标是通过更有效地恢复面部肌肉的有意义的运动来改善面瘫的临床管理。 目前的基本科学目标是建立一个研究面神经再生的动物模型，控制异常再生现象(将轴突错误地路由到不合适的肌肉靶点)，并使用药物策略加速大鼠面神经再生。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来增加在受伤或牺牲后到达面部肌肉系统的轴突的数量和靶点准确性。联动的相应减少(面部某一区域在面部表情过程中的无意移动)，以及总体上更高的神经输入将改善临床面神经结果。 临床环境是一家繁忙的三级护理医院，拥有专门的面神经中心和大量患有这种罕见疾病的患者；研究环境是一级医院和邻近医院内配备齐全的最先进的研究设施。学术环境是一种完全致力于通过仔细学习和勤奋调查来促进生物医学科学和患者护理的环境，并支持指导研究人员。

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.