The purpose of the present study is to reduce the postoperative morbidity related to facial paralysis during parotid surgery and to layout the different characteristics related to intraparotideal distribution and anastomoses of the facial nerve in our community. We also report new variations in the facial nerve branchings that have not been previously published. In this paper, facial nerves from 48 cadavers and 2 patients of which 45(90%) were males and 5(10%) were females; 26(52%) being right and 24(48%) being left facial nerves were put forward. Their photographs were taken and the diagrams of intraparotideal distributions of each facial nerve were drawn. The intraparotideal configuration of the facial nerve was evaluated in 5 types. Twenty-four% of the facial nerves had no anastomoses (Type I); 12% had a ring-like shape anastomosis between the buccal and the zygomatic branches (Type II); 14% anastomoses were between the buccal and the other branches in a ring-like shape (Type III); 38% of the facial nerves had multiple complex anastomoses and were named as multiple loops (Type IV); 12% had two main trunks (Type V). Of the bilateral cadaver dissections, the facial nerve distribution in 9(47.3%) were bilaterally the same and in 10(52.7%) main trunks were different. A facial nerve trifurcation composed of two main trunks were also established. There were no statistical differences between branching of the facial nerves in the right and left side of the faces.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

In order to help avoid complications of parotid surgery, we investigated the relationship between the facial nerve and the retromandibular vein. Fifty dissections were performed on 30 cadavers. In 45 (90%) of the cases the retromandibular vein was located on the medial side of the upper and lower trunks of the facial nerve, and in 5 (10%), the course of the retromandibular vein was lateral to the lower trunks and medial to the upper trunks. These variations were divided into subgroups. The most commonly encountered variation was that the retromandibular vein crossed the facial nerve from the medial (34 cases) or lateral side (3 cases) at a point between the bifurcation and ramification points of the lower facial trunk. In one case, the retromandibular vein was detected on the lateral side of the facial nerve at the bifurcation. In 3 cases (15%), the course of the retromandibular vein was different on the right and left sides of the face in the same cadaver.