Which of the following is false regarding Frey's syndrome?
High-Yield Explanation
Ans. is 'c' i.e., It occurs immediately after the parotid surgery Frey's syndrome (gustatory sweating) Gustatory sweating or Frey's syndrome involves post-parotidectomy facial sweating and skin flushing while eating. The symptoms usually occur several months or even years after parotid surgery. The likely pathophysiology is aberrant regeneration of postganglionic secretomotor parasympathetic nerve fibres (originating from the otic ganglion) misdirected through several axonal sheaths of post-ganglionic sympathetic fibres feeding the sweat glands. These sympathetic fibres are to the sweat glands of the skin in the dissected field. The frey's syndrome is likely due to injury to auriculotemporal nerve with faulty regeneration, therefore Frey's syndrome is also known as Auriculotemporal syndrome. A variant of Frey's syndrome in which there is gustatory facial flushing but not sweating, occurs following facial paralysis due to faulty regeneration following injury to the facial nerve. So, Frey's syndrome is not limited to parotid surgery with injury to auriculotemporal nerve.