Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
BACKGROUND Stereophotogrammetry (3D-SQ) provides a precise alternative for the assessment of facial aesthetic procedures. Nevertheless, its accuracy could be influenced by the operator when a non-fixed device is used. OBJECTIVE The objective of the present observational study was to evaluate the reliability of a portable non-fixed 3D-SQ device. METHODS Three operators took two 3D image captures of three distinct volunteers using a portable non-fixed 3D-SQ device. The acquisition of images was performed at two different time points (F1 and F2) with a 60-minute interval between each capture for each volunteer. No external lights or tripod were utilized, as recommended by the manufacturer. The photographs were processed through specialized software to generate 3D models, and a specific region of the face was analyzed to assess the reliability of the method. Interclass correlation coefficients of the area, perimeter, and volume of the selected region were calculated. RESULTS The results demonstrated a high intra-operator consistency at all three obtained values (volume ICCs=0.829; area ICCs=0.828; perimeter ICCs=0.673). However, low reliability in all values across different operators was found (ICCs CONCLUSIONS The study concluded that the reliability in facial stereophotogrammetry using a non-fixed device can be influenced by the operator, exhibiting high intra-operator reliability but significant variations between different operators. These variations may be attributed to factors such as operator height, differences in reference points, or equipment stability.
Germani et al. (Tue,) studied this question.