Facial Sciences Research

Advancing surgical and psychosocial outcomes for children with structural differences

The Facial Sciences research group at MCRi focuses on plastic and maxillofacial surgery which is broadly concerned with reconstruction or restoration of the body’s structure and function.

Structural deficiencies may arise from trauma, tumour removal, or developmental differences present from birth such as:

  • hand differences
  • cleft lip and palate
  • micrognathia
  • vascular anomalies

The challenges

Parents often ask their plastic or maxillofacial surgeon ”Will my child be okay?” Offering accurate responses, based on evidence, to this seemingly simple question is in practice extremely difficult. What does okay mean?:

  • Physically okay? Psychologically okay? Socially okay?
  • All of the above?
  • How much “okay” is enough?
  • How many operations will it take to be “okay”?

Diverse conditions and lifelong impact

The conditions treated are many and varied, affecting any area of the body and all age groups. Conditions treated in childhood may have consequences throughout growth and development, into adulthood and beyond.

Physical and psychosocial interconnection

Physical and psychosocial function are often intricately entwined. While restoring physical function is frequently the healthcare provider’s primary objective, the psychosocial effects, which are often highly specific to the individual andmore difficult to measure, may dominate for the patient and may indeed change between childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

Challenges in measuring psychosocial outcomes

There is a lack of quantitative data, and adequate measurement tools to evaluate psychosocial outcomes in many of the conditions we treat. Existing studies rarely extend beyond the perioperative phase, making it hard to know whether the interventions we believe are effective actually matter to children.

Our research focus

The focus of our research program is to first define outcomes that matter to the children we care for and collect these data uniformly into adulthood. Such data will allow us to better define the needs and expectations of children and their parents and to clarify how best to achieve this.

An archetype of this approach is the Australian Hand Differences Register which is housed and coordinated by Murdoch Children's Research Institute and collects patient reported outcome data on children born with upper limb differences from 11 sites across Australia from birth to 18 years and beyond.

More information

Contact us

Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery
Clinical Offices (3 West)
The Royal Children's Hospital
Flemington Rd Parkville
Victoria 3052 Australia

Phone: show phone number
Fax: +61 3 9345 6585
Email: [email protected]