Validation of the Turkish Version of the Facial Nerve Grading System 2.0.

Objective: We aimed to adapt the Facial Nerve Grading System 2.0 (FNGS 2.0) to Turkish and to investigate the validity and the reliability of the Turkish version.

Methods: The original FNGS 2.0 was translated into Turkish and validated by international standards. Six Turkish physicians, three specialists and three residents, independently rated the videos, two times each, of 40 adult facial palsy patients. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. As another indication of reliability, "generalizability" was also evaluated. For all analyses, a p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: ICC and Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the inter-rater reliability of the total score of the FNGS 2.0 were 0.970 and 0.979 for the first assessment, 0.973 and 0.979 for the second assessment, respectively. The intra-rater reliability ICC results for the total score of the FNGS 2.0 were 0.95, 0.976, 0.982, 0.956, 0.96 and 0.931 for the six raters, respectively. The generalizability coefficient was found as G=0.894.

Conclusion: In this study, we adapted the FNGS 2.0 to Turkish, and confirmed its reliability and validity as a facial palsy scale. The Turkish version of the FNGS 2.0 can be safely used to assess.