Anatomy & Physiology: Current Research
Open Access

Ultrasound evaluation of the facial nerve in healthy children

International Conference on Anatomy and Physiology

August 11-13, 2016 Birmingham, UK

Andrey Klimkin

Scientific Research Institute of Children�s Infections-St. Petersburg, Russia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Anat Physiol

Abstract :

Introduction: Ultra-sonography of cranial nerves is a new and evolving method of diagnosing lesions of cranial nerves in real time with high-resolution probes. Optic, facial, vagus and spinal accessory nerves are currently available for the ultrasound examination. The facial nerve has a special place among these cranial nerves, as the lesion of the facial nerve occurs in 13-24 cases per 100 000 in general population and is one of the first places among the neuropathies. According to the literature, there are few works on ultrasound characteristics of facial nerve in healthy adults and adults with facial nerve neuropathy and no works on ultrasound of facial nerve in children, both healthy and with the facial neuropathy. The purpose of our study was to establish the diameter of the facial nerve in the parotid gland in healthy children by means of ultra-sonography. Material & Methods: We examined 29 healthy children aged 8 to 16 years. All children underwent ultrasound in real time using ultrasound system Sonosite X-porte (USA) linear probe with a frequency of 15 MHz in the supine position, head turned to the left on the pillow for the study on the right and vice versa. The study was conducted on both sides. The probe is placed transversely just below the ear lobule along the longitudinal course of facial nerve. The nerve was defined as a linear hypo-echoic tubular structure with hyper-echoic borders inside relatively homogeneous hyper-echoic parotid gland. Measure the diameter of the nerve was carried out in the thickest part of the inclusion of hyper-echoic borders when 2 or more times the repeated measurement. The measurement results are rounded to the nearest 0.1 mm. Results & Conclusions: The average diameter of the facial nerve in healthy children aged from 8 to 16 years amounted to 0.5�±0.1 mm and the difference between the sides in diameter was 0.1�±0.1 mm, which is fully consistent with the data of the diameter of the nerve in adult volunteers (Tawfik E A 2015). The average facial nerve diameter values may provide help with identification of nerve abnormalities using ultrasound. Topic of the further investigations may be ultra-sonography of children with facial nerve neuropathy. This will help to identify the degree of change in the diameter of the nerve. Also the correlation of ultrasound changes with electrophysiological (EMG) deviations may be the promising topic of further investigations.

Biography :

Email: emg.sonography@gmail.com