• Hani Sinno, Stephanie Thibaudeau, Ali Izadpanah, Youssef Tahiri, George Christodoulou, Ronald Zuker, and Samuel J Lin.
• Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• Ann Plast Surg. 2012 Oct 1; 69 (4): 435-8.

BackgroundFacial paralysis is a debilitating condition. Dynamic and static facial reanimation remains a challenge for plastic surgeons and requires important resources. Our objective was to quantify the health state utility assessment (ie, utility score outcomes) of living with unilateral facial paralysis.MethodsUtility assessments using visual analog scale, time trade-off, and standard gamble were used to obtain utility outcome scores for unilateral facial paralysis from a prospective sample of the general population and medical students.ResultsA total number of 123 individuals prospectively participated in the study. All measures (visual analog scale, time trade-off, and standard gamble) for unilateral facial paralysis [0.56±0.18, 0.78±0.21, and 0.79±0.21 respectively] were significantly different (P<0.0001) from the corresponding outcome scores for monocular blindness [0.61±0.21, 0.83±0.21, and 0.85±0.18, respectively] and binocular blindness [0.33±0.18, 0.65±0.28, and 0.65±0.29, respectively]. Linear regression analysis using age, race, income, and education as predictors of each of the utility scores for facial paralysis showed no statistical significance.ConclusionsIn samples of the general population and medical students, all utility score outcome measures for facial paralysis were lower than those for monocular blindness. Our sample population, if faced with unilateral facial paralysis, would theoretically undergo facial reanimation procedures with a willingness to sacrifice 8 years of life and be willing to undergo a procedure with a 21% chance of mortality to attain perfect health, respectively.

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