Tools to assess facial surgery results

According to a review of previous studies published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery May/June issue, there has been a prevalence of objective and validated measures for assessing outcomes after facial plastic surgery over the past decade.

There are three categories of these studies namely, the patient-reported outcomes, clinical efficacy outcomes and the actuarial or financial outcomes studies. Patient-reported outcomes studies focus on patient satisfaction through the use of a validated quality-of-life instrument. Clinical efficacy outcomes studies are more on using objective scales such as physician reports to measure the effectiveness of a given treatment. And lastly, financial outcomes studies gauge results based on cost measures.

There are 68 separate instruments identified during the review process. These include 23 patient-reported measures and 45 clinical efficacy measures.

The use of validated tools proves to be a more important focus in assessing the results of a facial surgery. The authors of the review noted that the use of validated tools allows for true comparisons among different interventions or different techniques within a single intervention.

“Such tools can also reliably assist in identifying good surgical candidates and approaches, as well as identifying patients unlikely to benefit from surgery. Finally, they can serve to help demonstrate treatment efficacy and establish legitimacy for third-party payers and government oversight bodies charged with the allocation of resources,” the authors added.

There has been a growing abundance of well-constructed and validated outcome measures as revealed by the review of these existing studies. And this is very important especially for physicians and surgeons in order for them to provide the best possible results for patients who are seeking help from facial plastic surgery.