Use of a Y-tube conduit after facial nerve injury reduces collateral axonal branching at the lesion site but neither reduces polyinnervation of motor endplates nor improves functional recovery.

1 Department of Anatomy, Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, 07070 Antalya, Turkey 2 Department of Physiology, Akdeniz University, Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey 3 Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, University of Cologne, Germany 4 Anatomical Institute I, University of Cologne, Germany Department of Biochemistry, Vocational School of Health, Akdeniz University, 07070 Antalya, Turkey School of Animal Biology and Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, University of Western Australia # These authors equally contributed to this work and shared first authorship