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Background: Hard palate cleft closure has been associated with maxillary hypoplasia. The Schweckendiek procedure offers delayed hard palate closure to avoid early subperiosteal dissection and palatal scarring. This study sought to compare single-stage versus delayed hard palate closure for speech outcome and maxillary growth., Methods: A retrospective outcome study was performed of unilateral cleft lip and palate patients with either delayed hard palate repair with a pinned-retained speech prosthesis (Schweckendiek repair) (group 1, delayed hard palate repair, 1978 to 1983) or single-stage cleft palate repair (group 2, single-stage repair, 1983 to 1988). Patients with complete records to maturity at the University of Pittsburgh Cleft Palate Craniofacial Center (n = 82, two equal groups of 41 patients) were studied. Comparative data were collected from multidisciplinary evaluations, perceptual speech scores, speech tests, and cephalometric analysis., Results: Single-stage cleft palate repair had a lower fistulization rate (11 percent) compared with delayed hard palate repair (58 percent). It also had better speech outcomes compared with delayed hard palate repair: mean speech score, 3.1 versus 7.8; final speech score, 0.9 versus 2.9; velopharyngeal incompetency, 21 percent versus 66 percent; failed video fluoroscopy or nasoendoscopy, 18 percent versus 52 percent; and need for secondary speech procedure, 20 percent versus 63 percent. Single-stage repair showed less maxillary growth disturbance, with class III malocclusion, 31 percent versus 66 percent; cephalometric SNA, 78.2 versus 74.8; need for Le Fort I advancement, 24 percent versus 42 percent; and amount of maxillary advancement required, 6 mm versus 9 mm., Conclusion: The delayed cleft palate repair led to worse speech outcomes; thus, the authors' center abandoned this technique in favor of single-stage repair. In addition, their data showed that the delayed cleft palate repair led to deleterious maxillary growth.

Objective: This objective of this study was to determine the effect of presurgical nasoalveolar molding on long-term nasal shape in complete unilateral clefts., Design: The study was retrospective, and the subjects were chosen at random. Nasal casts of the subjects were scanned in three dimensions. Each nose was best fit to its mirror image, and a numerical asymmetry score was determined., Setting: All patients were treated at the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, NYU Medical Center, New York, New York., Patients: The study subjects (n = 10) were selected from a group that had undergone presurgical nasal molding in conjunction with alveolar molding. The control subjects (n = 10) were selected from a group that had undergone presurgical alveolar molding alone., Interventions: All subjects underwent presurgical orthopedic treatment until the age of approximately 4 months at which time the primary surgery was performed., Main Outcome Measure: The nasal shape following nasal molding should be more symmetrical than if molding had not been done., Results: The mean asymmetry index for the nasoalveolar molding group was 0.74, and the control group was 1.21. This difference was statistically significant (p < .05)., Conclusions: Presurgical nasoalveolar molding significantly increases the symmetry of the nose. The increase in symmetry is maintained long term into early childhood. The limitations of this study include (1) asymmetry alone is not an adequate shape result in most situations, (2) the children evaluated in this study were not fully grown, and (3) the control group was not age matched.

Anthropometry and clinical examination best evaluate the morphology of repaired cleft lip and nose. An original, accurate, and practical image analysis of the lip and nose, which takes advantage of the mathematic, geometric, and organizational capabilities of public domain NIH-Image software (http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/), has been developed and tested over the past 6 years. A modified structured physical examination form that complements this analysis is under study. Accuracy of NIH-Image-based anthropometry was compared with direct measurements of 22 linear distances on the lip and nose. Twenty-five sets of direct measurements were taken, prospectively, on 15 children with repaired cleft lip over a 6-year period. The results were submitted to regression analysis. Then, relevant lip and nasal tip aesthetics were evaluated by the measuring capabilities of NIH-Image to create a quantitative assessment tool. For each episode, 15 possible faults were weighted, according to aesthetics and deformity, to provide an adverse score. The sum of the 5 lip scores, 10 nose scores, and combination gave respective grades. The analysis was modified to stratify congenital deformity to relate severity of disease to outcome. This analysis was applied to digitized images of 19 consecutive children, immediately prior to repair of complete unilateral cleft lip and nose, at the time of palate repair, and annually from the age of 3 to 6 years. There were 19 NIH-Image-based measurements of the congenital deformity and 35 measurements of surgical results; four children had three sets of records, eight had two sets, and seven had one set Descriptive statistics were applied. Following 556 paired direct and computer-assisted measurements, exceptional linear correlation was shown with a Pearson R coefficient of 0.96. The best correlation was lines within the plane of the camera lens, with the average difference ranging between 0.025 and 0.997 mm. Visual inspection of frontal and submental photographs of excellent, good, and poor results substantiates the ability of this analysis to quantify and grade a spectrum of relevant cleft lip and nasal anatomy. For these 19 patients, there was a broad range of performance scores, approximating a normal distribution. The mean of the NIH-Image-based analysis scores, 16.91, was a (very) good grade. A single standard deviation of 6.88 extended up into excellent and down to fair. The congenital analysis indicated a range of deformity. Comparing deformity with outcome, simple regression analysis had a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.223, indicative of a weak positive relationship. An accurate and practical morphologic computer-assisted outcome assessment of repaired cleft lip and nasal deformity has been developed. There is a weak direct correlation between severity of deformity and outcome. Testing in multiple clinics is warranted.

Midfacial hypoplasia following primary cleft lip repair is a common clinical correlate. Recent experimental work has suggested that increased lip pressure following an undermined lip repair may contribute to midfacial growth inhibition. Soft-tissue expansion has been used to generate additional soft tissue for reconstruction in the cranial region. The use of this technique in the labial region may allow lip repair to be performed with less tension (pressure) and thus facilitate midfacial growth. To test this hypothesis, 40 4-week-old rabbits were randomly divided into four groups. Two groups had surgically created lip and alveolar defects. Ipsilateral labial tissue expanders were placed in all four groups. One cleft and one normal group underwent expansion. The other two groups served as a control. The expanders were removed at 4 weeks, and an undermined lip repair was performed in both cleft groups. Findings revealed that soft-tissue expansion increased labial surface area significantly by approximately 96% (p < 0.001). Labial soft-tissue expansion alone had no effect on midfacial growth during the observation period. In contrast, cleft animals undergoing tissue expansion exhibited significantly reduced (p < 0.05) postoperative lip pressure and increased midfacial growth compared with cleft animals without expansion through 36 weeks of age. Results suggest that preoperative tissue expansion reduced postoperative lip pressure and improved midfacial growth in a rabbit cleft lip model.

Forty years after its introduction by McNeil and Burston, presurgical orthopedics remains a controversial subject. Although the more extravagant claims for the technique have been dismissed, assessment of its proper place in cleft rehabilitation has been hampered by the poor design of early studies. Furthermore, although the principles of presurgical orthopedics are derived from the venerable tradition of reducing cleft width to facilitate reconstructive surgery, almost all research has focused on matters of dental alignment, cross bites, and maxillary arch form. Not one research paper has ever been published investigating the possible benefits to cleft surgery resulting from presurgical orthopedic treatment. Although it is now generally accepted that presurgical orthopedics does not give significant orthodontic benefits, there are still numerous opinions indicating that presurgical orthopedics does facilitate primary reconstructive surgery for cleft lip and palate. Furthermore, presurgical alignment of the maxillary skeletal base is considered essential to some of the new techniques of primary rhinoplasty.

Recent experimental work has suggested that increased lip pressure and scar contraction following lip repair with wide soft-tissue undermining may, in part, contribute to midfacial growth inhibition. The present study was designed to test this hypothesis through the application of pharmacologic agents reported to minimize scar contraction. Thirty-six 6-week-old rabbits were divided into six groups: unoperated controls, rabbits with surgically created defects left unrepaired (surgical controls), and four groups of rabbits with surgically created defects with lip repair and wide undermining on the maxillary surface. Animals with lip repair received either no injections or labial subcutaneous injections of distilled water (route-of-injection controls), normal saline, or papaverine hydrochloride for 2 weeks postoperatively. Rabbits with lip repair and saline or papaverine injections showed significantly (p less than 0.05) decreased lip pressure, relatively hypotonic orbicularis oris muscle EMG activity on the cleft lip side, and greater anteroposterior facial growth (assessed radiologically) from 2 to 24 weeks postoperatively compared with rabbits with lip repair and postoperatively compared with rabbits with lip repair and no injections or distilled water injections. Preliminary results suggest that wound contraction following lip repair and soft-tissue undermining may contribute to mid-facial growth inhibition, which may be reduced by pharmacologic manipulations in the rabbit model.