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Introduction: In incomplete nerve injury, treatment based on clinical care and, therefore, depends on the development of new drugs or methods that will assist the nerve regeneration. Growth factors has been studied for a long time as a mechanism for accelerating tissue repair. The platelet-rich plasma (PRP) provides greater amount of growth factors and autologous concentration of platelets in a small volume of plasma. Objective: To evaluate the effect of PRP in the regeneration of the extratemporal facial nerve of rabbits after crush injury.

Material and Methods: Thirty-one New Zealand rabbits underwent crush trauma in unilateral extratemporal facial nerve. After the injury, 19 rabbits were treated with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and 12 rabbits followed without treatment. The rabbits were evaluated using surface electromyography (EMG) preoperatively, one, two and four weeks after injury, being sacrificed and performed histological study of the nerve. We evaluated the number of axons and axon diameter.

Results: The EMG showed a decrease after injury, but no statistically significant between groups. The EMG did not differ significantly between the groups. The average is statistically higher EMG preoperatively with respect to one week (p = 0.008). Among the other situations there is no statistically significant differences. As for the qualitative analysis, there was no significant differences between the control group and submitted the application of PRP. As for quantitative histological analysis, no increase in the number of axons and the mean diameter of the facial nerve fibers compared to untreated group with PRP.

Conclusion: In this study, the use of PRP after lesion of extra-temporal facial nerve crush in rabbits was not effective.