Early rehabilitation of facial nerve deficit after acoustic neuroma surgery.

Objective—To determine whether an early physical rehabilitative program could improve and/or accelerate recovery from a postoperative deficit of facial nerve (FN) function.Material and Methods—A retrospective study of the charts of patients who presented a postoperative FN deficit after surgery for acoustic neuroma (AN) was carried out. Twenty-nine patients were enrolled and divided into 2 groups: 18 who underwent early physical rehabilitation and 11 who did not undergo rehabilitation. All the AN patients underwent translabyrinthine removal and were classified preoperatively according to the House–Brackmann staging system. Physical rehabilitation was performed according to Kabat (i.e. neuromuscular facilitation). FN function was assessed postoperatively and classified according to the House–Brackmann grading system.Results—In Grade IV and V patients, early rehabilitation allowed a faster and better recovery with respect to AN patients for whom rehabilitation was not carried out.Conclusion—Early physical r...