In the abstract, the authors state that when periods of A-trains (a specific electromyographic activity of the facial muscles) are automatically detected and their length summed up (ie, “traintime”), there was a “high correlation between traintime as measured by real-time analysis and functional outcome immediately after the operation (Spearman correlation coefficient [ρ] = 0.664, P .001) and in long-term outcome (ρ = 0.631, P .001).” In the text of the article, this statement is similarly expressed with the exception that a 2-sided P value of .0001 is reported for the correlation between traintime and short-term (10 days postoperatively) clinical outcome of facial nerve function in the given 30 patients.Although it is common to assume that the amount of electromyographic activity related to mechanical irritation of the facial nerve during surgery electromyography is somehow related to facial palsy after the operation, caution should be exercised with the data presented here for 2 reasons.
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