A Narrative Review of Eye-Tracking (ET) Assessment of Esthetic Endpoints in Plastic, Reconstructive, and Craniofacial Surgery.

Abstract

Reporting of esthetic outcomes in plastic surgery relies classically on ill-defined endpoints and subjective measures very often from the patients' and/or providers' perspectives that are notoriously characterized by subjectivity and questionable solid scientific validation. With the recent trend of increasing demand for all types of esthetic medical and surgical interventions, there is an urgent need for reliable and objective outcome measures to quantitate esthetic outcomes and determine the efficacy of these interventions. The current review is intended to analyze available evidence regarding advantages as well as limitations of eye-tracking (ET) technology in objectively documenting esthetic outcomes of plastic, reconstructive, and craniofacial interventions. Although gaze pattern analysis is gaining more attention, ET data should be interpreted with caution; how a specific visual stimulus directly influences one's sense of esthetics is still not clear. Furthermore, despite its great potentials, it is still too early to confirm or deny ET usefulness. Nevertheless, patient-reported outcomes being most indicative of an esthetic intervention success, measurement of patients' satisfaction by ET technology could offer a major breakthrough in objective assessment of esthetic outcomes that need further in-depth investigation. Level III.