• Arzu Hizay, Umut Ozsoy, Bahadir Murat Demirel, Ozlem Ozsoy, Srebrina K Angelova, Janina Ankerne, Sureyya Bilmen Sarikcioglu, Sarah A Dunlop, Doychin N Angelov, and Levent Sarikcioglu.
• Department of Anatomy, Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey.
• Neurosurgery. 2012 Jun 1;70(6):1544-56; discussion 1556.

BackgroundDespite increased understanding of peripheral nerve regeneration, functional recovery after surgical repair remains disappointing. A major contributing factor is the extensive collateral branching at the lesion site, which leads to inaccurate axonal navigation and aberrant reinnervation of targets.ObjectiveTo determine whether the Y tube reconstruction improved axonal regrowth and whether this was associated with improved function.MethodsWe used a Y-tube conduit with the aim of improving navigation of regenerating axons after facial nerve transection in rats.ResultsRetrograde labeling from the zygomatic and buccal branches showed a halving in the number of double-labeled facial motor neurons (15% vs 8%; P < .05) after Y tube reconstruction compared with facial-facial anastomosis coaptation. However, in both surgical groups, the proportion of polyinnervated motor endplates was similar (≈ 30%; P > .05), and video-based motion analysis of whisking revealed similarly poor function.ConclusionAlthough Y-tube reconstruction decreases axonal branching at the lesion site and improves axonal navigation compared with facial-facial anastomosis coaptation, it fails to promote monoinnervation of motor endplates and confers no functional benefit.

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