Facial Nerve in Parotid Surgery- do Landmarks Differ With Varying Statures?

Aim: To measure the distance of facial nerve from tragal pointer, tympanic plate and digastric muscle, also length of the facial nerve trunk and to establish any variation according to different patient stature. Methodology: Intraoperative measurements were taken using Castroviejo Callipers (20 mm). Height and weight of each was taken and tabulated. Results: The average height was 162 ± 9 cm while the average weight was 58 ± 9 kg. The average length of the extratemporal part of the facial nerve trunk, distance of the facial nerve from the tragal pointer, distance from the outer edge of tympanic plate, distance from the posterior end of the superior border of posterior belly of digastric muscle was 1 ± 0.2 cm, 1 ± 0.1 cm, 0.3 ± 0.2 cm and 0.2 ± 0.1 cm, respectively. Summary: No major difference was found in the landmarks despite varying stature.