Objective: To develop a new method, videomimicography (VMG), to evaluate facial motor function.
Methods: During VMG, 11 landmarks were placed on the face, and 5 movements (forehead lifting, eye closure, nose wrinkling, lip puckering and smiling) with maximal contraction were requested. A digital video film was recorded then fed in a computer to be analyzed. Ten normal subjects were used as normal control.
Results: Area measures were found better than distance measures in evaluating facial movements. The best measure for each movement was determined. Then a global index of facial motor function was derived from these measures. This index was found well correlated with the facial paralysis House-Brackmann grade in 48 patients with facial paralysis (r = -0.928).
Conclusion: VMG is an objective, quantitative, relative simple method. It has good reproducibility. So it can be used in clinic for evaluating facial motor function.