Design and Evaluation of a Custom-Made Electromyographic Biofeedback System for Facial Rehabilitation.

Background: In the rehabilitation of postoperative facial palsy, physical therapy is of paramount importance. However, in the early rehabilitation phase, voluntary movements are often limited, and thus, the motivation of patients is impacted. In these situations, biofeedback of facial electromyographic (EMG) signals enables the visual representation of the rehabilitation progress, even without apparent facial movements. In the present study, we designed and evaluated a custom-made EMG biofeedback system enabling cost-effective facial rehabilitation. Methods: This prospective study describes a custom-made EMG system, consisting of a microcontroller board and muscle sensors, which was used to record the EMG of Results: In healthy subjects, a good correlation was measured between the mean EMG amplitudes of the custom-made and commercial EMG device for both Conclusion: The present study demonstrates a good application potential of our custom-made EMG biofeedback device to detect facial EMG activity in healthy subjects as well as patients with facial palsies. There is a correlation between the electrophysiological measurements and the clinical outcome. Such a device might enable cost-efficient home-based facial EMG biofeedback. However, movement detection accuracy should be improved in future studies to reach ranges of commercial devices.