TY  - THES
U1  - Dissertation oder Habilitation
A1  - ALMenabbawy Mohamed, Ahmed
T1  - A multivariable prediction model for recovery patterns and time course of symptoms improvement in hemifacial spasm following microvascular decompression
N2  - Background:
Microvascular decompression (MVD) success rates exceed 90% in hemifacial spasm (HFS).
However, postoperative recovery patterns and durations are variable.

Objective:
We aim to study factors that might influence the postoperative patterns and duration needed until
final recovery.

Method:
Only patients following de-novo MVD with a minimum follow-up of 6 months were included.
Overall trend of recovery was modeled. Patients were grouped according to recognizable clinical
recovery patterns. Uni- and multivariable analyses were used to identify the factors affecting
allocation to the identified patterns and time needed to final recovery.

Results:
323(92.6%) patients had >90% symptom improvement and 269(77.1%) patients had complete
resolution at the last follow–up. The overall trend of recovery showed steep remission within the
first 6 months, followed by relapse peaking around 8 months with a second remission ~16
months. Five main recovery patterns were identified.
Patterns analysis showed that evident proximal indentation of the facial nerve at REZ, males and
facial palsy are associated with earlier recovery at multivariable and univariable levels. AICA,
AICA/VA compressions and shorter disease durations are related to immediate resolution of the
symptoms only on the univariable level. Time analysis showed that proximal indentation (vs.
distal indentation), males and facial palsy witnessed significantly earlier recoveries.

Conclusion:
Our main finding is that in contrast to peripheral indentation, proximal indentation of the facial
nerve at REZ is associated with earlier recovery. Postoperative facial palsy and AICA
compressions are associated with earlier recoveries. We recommend a minimum of 1 year before
evaluating the final outcome of MVD for HFS.
KW  - Microvascular decompression
KW  - hemifacial spasm
KW  - delayed recovery
KW  - time course of recovery
Y2  - 2022
U6  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-opus-75685
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-opus-75685
ER  -