Do patients with isolated Pierre Robin Sequence have worse outcomes after cleft palate repair: A systematic review

Abstract

Cleft palate repair for Pierre Robin Sequence (PRS) patients has always been a challenge for surgeons and anesthetists. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the outcome of cleft palate repair for PRS patients compared with cleft palate-only patients. All papers published before October 2014 were searched in the databases PubMed and MEDLINE. Search terms included "Pierre Robin Sequence," "cleft palate repair," and "speech result." Additional studies were identified by hand searching the reference lists of the papers retrieved from electronic search. Two independent reviewers assessed the eligibility of studies for inclusion, extracted the data, and assessed the quality of the studies. Six studies met the inclusion criteria. All but one study had multiple deficiencies in study designs. Four studies assessed the fistula rate of both groups, and all studies assessed some aspect of the speech results. Conflicting results and a lack of high-quality and long-term outcomes of reviewed studies provided no conclusive scientific evidence about whether the outcome of cleft palate repair for PRS patients was better or worse than cleft palate-only patients. Further well-designed, well-controlled, and long-term studies are needed.

Keywords: Cleft palate repair; Cleft palate-only; Outcome; Pierre Robin Sequence; Systematic review.