Conclusion
Facial nerve palsy is an important consequence of neck dissection.
Different palsies have different prognoses, and this is important for
patient counselling in terms of long-term prognosis. Despite the
differentiation being made academically over 40 years ago, there is a
paucity in the literature describing the characteristics particularly in
association with neck dissections, where both MMN and platysmal
function are inherently at risk.
Here we present a simple method of distinguishing the two palsies, along
with the anatomical relevance, so that appropriate reassurance, therapy
and management can be undertaken.
Acknowledgment: Thank you to Sciepro/Science Photo Library for underlay
picture on figure one.
Data availability statement : Data sharing not applicable to
this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the
current study.