Objective: To investigate the effect of lip closure on reduction of cleft palates when no pre-surgical infant orthopedics (PSIO) are used.
Study design: Retrospective patient chart-review in our department for Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery at the University Medical Centre Freiburg, Germany. 19 patients at the age of 5.9 ± 2.1 months with surgical treatment of uni- (UCLP), or bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) without any use of PSIO were included.
Results: Early soft tissue correction of the lip leads to an effective reduction of the maxillary arch without any use of PSIO. The presented conventional and digital measurements appeared to be reliable. A successful reduction of the cleft width (UCLP = 3.88 ± 2.42mm, BCLP = 7.33 ± 5.00mm), the width of the alveolar arch (1.91 ± 1.36mm) and the sagittal depth of the alveolar arch (3.07 ± 2.71 mm) could be achieved with the presented workflow.
Conclusions: Cleft reduction was obtainable without PSIO when lip closure after Tennison-Randall was performed.
Keywords: Pre surgical infant orthopedics; Tennison-Randall; cleft reduction; infant orthopedics.