Position of the hyoid bone in cleft lip, alveolus, and palate: variation of normal anatomy or sign accompanying the malformation?
OBJECTIVE
To compare the hyoid bone position in patients with clefts of lip, alveolus, and palate with orthodontic patients with no cleft.


METHODS
Retrospective cephalometric long-term study.


METHODS
Lateral cephalograms of 23 patients with a complete unilateral cleft were compared with those of 24 orthodontic patients with no cleft with an Angle class 1 occlusion. Twenty-five of the patients were girls, and 22 were boys. The age of the patients with cleft at the beginning of the study was 8.1 +/- 0.7 years and at the end 14.8 +/- 0.6 years. The patients without cleft were 8.4 +/- 0.8 years old at the beginning and 14.4 +/- 0.6 years at the end of the study.


METHODS
Cephalometric analysis was used to determine the skull growth pattern as well as the positions of the head and hyoid bone twice in all 47 persons.


RESULTS
With increasing age of the patients, the skull growth pattern changed from vertical to horizontal growth, but no significant differences were found between patients with and without cleft. Head position did not differ significantly between patients with and without cleft. However, hyoid bone position differed significantly. The hyoid in patients with cleft was located more caudally and more anteriorly than in patients without cleft.


CONCLUSIONS
The hyoid bone in a subset of north German adolescents with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate was found to be caudal and anterior, compared with a control group.
Kaduk
Wolfram M H
WM
Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Greifswald, Germany. kaduk@mail.uni-greifswald.de
Grabowski
Rosemarie
R
Gundlach
Karsten K H
KK
D000293:Adolescent; D000539:Alveolar Process / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000254:growth & development; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005147:Facial Bones / Q000254:growth & development; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006257:Head / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006928:Hyoid Bone / Q000254:growth & development / Q000473:pathology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008311:Malocclusion, Angle Class I / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011187:Posture; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012886:Skull / Q000254:growth & development; D013223:Statistics as Topic