Assessment for facial nerve paralysis based on facial asymmetry

Abstract

Facial nerve paralysis (FNP) is a loss of facial movement due to facial nerve damage, which will lead to significant physical pain and abnormal function in patients. Traditional FNP grading methods are solely based on clinician's judgment and are time-consuming and subjective. Hence, an accurate, quantitative and objective method of evaluating FNP is proposed for constructing a standard system, which will be an invaluable tool for clinicians who treat the patient with FNP. In this paper, we introduce a novel method for quantitative assessment of FNP which combines an effective facial landmark estimation (FLE) algorithm and facial asymmetrical feature (FAF) by processing facial movement image. The facial landmarks can be detected automatically and accurately using FLE. The FAF is based on the angle of key facial landmark connection and mirror degree of multiple regions on human face. Our method provides significant contribution as it describes the displacement of facial organ and the changes of facial organ exposure during performing facial movements. Experiments show that our method is effective, accurate and convenient in practice, which is beneficial to FNP diagnosis and personalized rehabilitation therapy for each patient.

Keywords: Facial asymmetry; Facial image analysis; Facial landmark estimation; Facial movement; Facial nerve paralysis assessment.