Validation of the Glasgow Facial Palsy Scale for the assessment of smile reanimation surgery in facial paralysis

Abstract

Statistical analysis indicated a linear relationship between the Glasgow Facial Palsy Scale and the Nottingham System. The Pearson correlation test was used to confirm the relationship between the two methods giving a result of -0.587, which indicates significant correlation between the two methods. We conclude that the Glasgow Facial Palsy Scale is a standardised objective method of assessing the change in facial movement following smile reanimation surgery. We commend it as a useful tool to objectively assess surgical results in this challenging field.

A prospective 4‐year study of the objective and subjective outcomes of fifteen patients after dynamic facial reanimation surgery

“…We also used photographs to record the outcomes of dynamic facial reanimation procedures which is less than ideal as photography of a dynamic process is subject to error. In future, we aim to use video recording and correlate this with the Glasgow Facial Palsy scale . The short follow‐up times in some of the MIT3 only patients could be considered suboptimal in assessing full potential outcome in facial reanimation surgery; however, the improvement with this technique is often very apparent early on.…”

Long-Term Outcomes of Facial Nerve Function in Irradiated and Nonirradiated Nerve Grafts

“…It could be argued that more objective methods should have been used for assessing the degree of facial palsy, such as novel computerized techniques. 10 Despite being subjective and prone to interobserver variation, the HB scale remains the most frequently used scale in clinical practice and in the literature. For consistency, the patients in this study were reviewed by a skull base multidisciplinary team that consisted of a neurosurgeon and a neurotologist, among others, and consensus on the HB grade was reached.…”

The Digital Neurologic Examination

“…Facial movement, symmetry, and expressions may be assessed with facial recognition software. In the context of facial reanimation surgery after facial palsy, this technology has been used to provide automated palsy scale scoring [53]. As with many other technologies, the cameras and software intrinsic to this approach may be housed in a variety of forms, including desktop and mobile devices or even smart mirrors [54].…”