Abstract： Objective　To analyse the relation between the operation time and functional recovery of the facial motor nerve. Methods　133 cases of facial motor nerve injury between 1983 and 1998 were involved in this survey. Most of them (130 cases) suffered from traumatic facial palsy. 73 cases were followed up for evaluating their functional recovery of mimic muscles according to the suggestion by the International Muscle Transplant Registry (1991). Results　More than 80% cases of facial nerve injury were sharp cut. There were 28 cases undergone immediate or early repair of the facial nerve, 90 cases secondary repair, 15 cases neuromuscular transfer. The functional recovery was achieved in 24/28 cases in which the broken nerves were immediately or early repaired. Conclusions　The time to repair the injured motor nerve should be as early as possible, even for the facial palsy caused by tumor or tumor resection. There is still an urgent need to improve the method for objectively evaluating the functional recovery of the facial nerve.