Nerve Question?

[Micky]

Hi all my question is why can’t they graft or put back a nerve when the cut it, I had  perfect hearing before surgery and SSD now, they can do so much in the medical industry why cant they graft acoustic nerves?
Cheers for your time. 

[leapyrtwins]

Micky -

I'm not a doctor, but it is my understanding that the hearing nerve is a very delicate nerve and therefore is easily damaged.  I'm assuming that if it's that hard to damage, it must be equally hard to repair.

On the flip side, facial nerves are easily damaged, but they are a little "heartier" than hearing nerves which means they have the ability to regenerate over time.

Jan

[sgerrard]

I think it is a difference between muscle control nerves, like the facial nerve, and sensory nerves, like the hearing nerve or the optic nerve. For the sensory nerves, there are just too many tiny little connections to be made to have much hope of hooking up a graft. For muscle control, the brain can re-learn to use whatever connections get made to regain control of the muscles.

Or something like that.

Steve

[Tumbleweed]

I think Steve is probably right. I was told by a neurosurgeon that the sensory nerves are more sensitive than the locomotive nerves. Basically, nerves that receive stimulus and transmit impulses to the brain are more sensitive than those that send info the other direction (out to body parts in the form of commands to do things, like move facial muscles).

Maybe someday stem-cell research will give us back our balance and hearing. That day is probably a long way off. 

Tumbleweed

[HeadCase2]

Hi Micky,
  Another factor is that the blood supply to the hearing aparatus may have been disturbed by treatment.  For hearing to function you need both innervation and a blood supply.
Regards,
  Rob

[Jim Scott]

My neurosurgon told me that my hearing nerve had been 'squished' by the AN and effectively 'killed'.  However, because I had retrosigmoid approach surgery, it's intact...just not functioning.  At my semi-annual checkups, he still checks the affected ear (my left) to see if I hear anything.  I don't, but he said that I had such good recuperative powers he wouldn't be surprised if the nerve somehow regenerated.  I ask him what the odds were of that happening.  He just smiled and said: "very small".  I'm still SSD.

Jim