Objective: Quantitative measures of facial form to evaluate treatment outcomes for cleft lip (CL) are currently limited. Computer-based analysis of three-dimensional (3D) images provides an opportunity for efficient and objective analysis. The purpose of this study was to define a computer-based standard of identifying the 3D midfacial reference plane of the face in children with unrepaired cleft lip for measurement of facial symmetry.
Participants: The 3D images of 50 subjects (35 with unilateral CL, 10 with bilateral CL, five controls) were included in this study.
Interventions: Five methods of defining a midfacial plane were applied to each image, including two human-based (Direct Placement, Manual Landmark) and three computer-based (Mirror, Deformation, Learning) methods.
Main outcome measure: Six blinded raters (three cleft surgeons, two craniofacial pediatricians, and one craniofacial researcher) independently ranked and rated the accuracy of the defined planes.
Results: Among computer-based methods, the Deformation method performed significantly better than the others. Although human-based methods performed best, there was no significant difference compared with the Deformation method. The average correlation coefficient among raters was .4; however, it was .7 and .9 when the angular difference between planes was greater than 6° and 8°, respectively.
Conclusions: Raters can agree on the 3D midfacial reference plane in children with unrepaired CL using digital surface mesh. The Deformation method performed best among computer-based methods evaluated and can be considered a useful tool to carry out automated measurements of facial symmetry in children with unrepaired cleft lip.
Keywords: 3D stereophotogrammetry; cleft lip; outcomes; symmetry.