• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.521-524
• /
• 2006

Purpose: The history of biometry dates back to ancient Greek. The ideal body ratio from biometry is used as a guideline in many works of art. Biometry is also used as a medical standard to determine normal or abnormal. Since the biometry of face is so complicated, many surgeons tend to regard preoperative evaluation as a bother and substitute medical records with some photographs. We introduce a new method to measure $MRD_1$ and levator function using digital photographs, which becomes widely used lately. Methods: $MRD_1$ can be measured with the primary-gaze-view photo which is magnified by PhotoshopR 7.0.1. The distance from coneal reflex of ring flash to upper eyelid margin is converted to mm-unit using the piece of ruler attached on the patient's face. Levator function can be measured with up-gaze-view photo and down-gaze-view photo which are superimposed on another. The excursion distance of upper eyelid margin (a) and the excursion distance of eyebrow (b) are measured respectively. The levator function can be assessed through subtraction of two values (a-b). This method is simple and precise and can be applied directly to patient without photos. Results: Using magnified digital photos and computer, this method can reduce personal error and instrumental error. Taking some digital photos doesn't take long time, so it can reduce the effort of preoperative evaluation and discomfort of patients. Conclusion: Digital photo-biometry is useful for retrospective study. Especially reducing personal error, it is useful when the number of specimens is huge. New levator function test is much more useful for Asian-specific eyes than Berke's method allowing frontalis muscle compensation.