Development and preliminary validation of the lip reanimation outcomes questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
Lip paralysis is associated with eating, speaking, and appearance impairments. The lip reanimation outcome questionnaire is designed to assess these functional impairments after lip reanimation.


METHODS
Cross-sectional validation study.


METHODS
Tertiary care academic center.


METHODS
Patients who underwent lip reanimation and control subjects. A disease-specific instrument was created by systematic literature review and expert opinion. The 15-item patient completed subscale was administered to 20 lip reanimation patients. Photographs of 19 patients and three control subjects were taken in four poses and rated by six raters (2 surgeons, 2 residents, and 2 novices) by the use of a external rater subscale, and reliability was determined by the use of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Content and construct validity were assessed.


RESULTS
Internal consistency (ICC range 0.813-0.915 for each domain), test-retest reliability (ICC range 0.616-0.981 for each item) for the patient completed subscale, and interrater (ICC = 0.852) and interlevel reliability (ICC = 0.929) for the external rater subscale were substantial to excellent. The content validity index was 0.87. Construct validity was demonstrated by poorer scores in patients with transected nerves versus intact nerves for appearance (P = 0.04) and oral competence (P = 0.011). Photographs of control patients had lower asymmetry scores (P < 0.001), and the instrument detected greater asymmetry in patients with progressively more exaggerated smile (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The lip reanimation outcome questionnaire has promising reliability and validity in this preliminary study, but additional psychometric testing with larger samples is required before the survey can be recommended for clinical use.
de Almeida
John R
JR
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. john.dealmeida@utoronto.ca
Alexander
Ashlin J
AJ
Shrime
Mark G
MG
Gilbert
Ralph W
RW
Goldstein
David P
DP
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005158:Facial Paralysis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008047:Lip Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D015588:Observer Variation; D011788:Quality of Life; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome