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Objective : To study the growth of children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) from 2 to 10 years of age and to assess whether growth varied from that of children without UCLP (typical children). Design : Physical growth was one of the outcome measures of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored longitudinal, prospective clinical trial conducted by the University of Florida and the University of São Paulo. Setting : Hospital of Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies, University of São Paulo (HRAC-USP), Bauru, Brazil. Main Outcome Measures : Height and weight were prospectively measured for 360 healthy children with UCLP who were nonsyndromic, belonged to median socioeconomic status, and received health care at HRAC-USP. To compare growth of children with UCLP to that of typical children, growth curves for UCLP were developed and compared with World Health Organization curves for 2006 and 2007, which were used as reference for typical children. Third-degree polynomials were used to explain the relationship of length and weight with age. Confidence limits of 95% were used for the mean curve using the statistic Z ~ N (0,1). Results : Children with UCLP from 2 to 10 years old presented height and weight growth curves similar to those of typical children for both genders. Conclusion : Children with UCLP from 2 to 10 years old presented physical growth similar to that of typical children.

Objective: This study was undertaken by several members of the University of Florida Craniofacial Center to assess the results of palatoplasty performed by the method devised by Larisa Y. Frolova, M.D. in 1971., Design: The assessment was based on evaluation of each subject's speech and velopharyngeal function through perceptual measures, nasometry, and video-nasendoscopy., Setting: The study took place at the National Pediatric Center for Congenital Maxillofacial Pathology, Moscow, Russia, under the auspices and with the cooperation of Dr. Frolova, director of the program., Subjects: One hundred twelve children (40 girls and 72 boys; age range, 4 to 10 years; mean age, 7.5 years) with repaired cleft palate who had undergone palatoplasty 2 to 4 years earlier and had no secondary surgery were randomly selected from the center's clinical files by the staff. Subjects with known conditions that could jeopardize normal speech development were excluded., Methods: Each subject was assessed for speech and velopharyngeal function with a battery of perceptual measures and videonasendoscopy., Results: The percentage of subjects judged to have normal resonance was 55.5%. An additional 9.5% of the subjects judged to be hyponasal increased the rate of nonhypernasal outcome to 64%., Conclusions: The Furlow double-Z palatoplasty has had an increasing rate of success (up to 87%), whereas the Frolova technique has a success rate of only 55% to 65%.

Objective: To evaluate the stature of Russian children with cleft lip and palate (CLP)., Design: One hundred twelve Russian children predominantly with repaired unilateral CLP 4 through 10 years of age underwent studies including height measurement, physical examinations, and record review. Children with health concerns that could affect growth were excluded. U.S. growth data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and Russian parental heights were used in the absence of Russian growth norms., Results: Based on U.S. norms, the distribution curve for heights for the Russian children was largely confined to the +1 to -1 standard deviation (SD) range. Sixty-two percent of the Russian children had heights below the 50th percentile for American female and male children of the same age. The proportion of children found outside the +1 to -1 SD range approximated the proportion expected statistically for the general population, with 14.4% < -1 SD (16th percentile) and 12% > +1 SD (84th percentile). A total of 3.6% of the children ranked below the third percentile, which is close to the expected 3%. Russian parents' (n = 209) mean heights were 0.5 SD below NCHS's 50th percentile values for adults., Conclusion: These results indicate that there is no increased risk of true short stature in 4- to 10-year-old Russian children with repaired CLP.

Objective: In this study, researchers evaluated the otologic and audiologic status of 112 children with repaired cleft lip and palate who had received primary palatal repair by means of Frolova palatoplasty, a surgical technique developed by Dr. Larisa Y. Frolova, founder and director of the National Pediatric Center for Congenital Maxillofacial Pathology, Moscow, Russia., Design: Results of hearing thresholds and tympanograms for these Russian children were compared with data previously reported from a group of 48 children and adults with repaired cleft lip and palate at the University of Florida Craniofacial Center, Gainesville, Florida., Results: There were no substantial differences in hearing thresholds between the two groups, which was surprising in view of the vast differences between middle ear management techniques used in Russia and the United States., Conclusions: Considering these findings and the growing body of literature favoring a more conservative approach to the management of middle ear effusion in infants with cleft lip and palate, a reexamination of otologic strategies in the United States seems advisable.