Parry-Romberg syndrome: severity of the deformity does not correlate with quality of life

The aims of this study were to (1) describe the main clinical findings of Parry-Romberg syndrome (PRS), (2) evaluate surgical strategies and outcomes, and (3) investigate the quality of life of patients according to their disease severity.

This retrospective observational study involved 14 patients treated between 2005 and 2011. The surgical treatment strategies were based on the proposed system for grading severity, and postoperative outcomes were assessed. The patients answered two questionnaires that covered the clinical manifestations of the syndrome and their quality of life in the postoperative period. A comparative analysis between the severity of the deformity and the quality of life was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests.

The most prevalent clinical manifestation of PRS was progressive hemifacial atrophy (85.71 %). The surgical strategy was individualized based on the severity of disease of each patient. Surgical strategies included free-fat grafts, dermal fat grafts, and bone grafts associated with a temporoparietal fascia flap. Regardless of approach, all patients had an overall improvement in their facial appearance and were free of complications during the follow-up period. Our data showed no association between the severity of the deformity and the quality of life of these patients (all p > 0.05).

In this series, there was a predominance of clinical features of PRS that had been previously reported. Satisfactory outcomes were obtained using different surgical strategies that varied according to the severity of the deformity. The severity of the deformity did not impose a reduced quality of life on PRS patients.

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