Sagittal maxillary growth in children with unilateral cleft of the lip, alveolus and palate at the age of 10 years: an intercentre comparison.
OBJECTIVE
Aim of this intercentre study was to compare sagittal facial growth in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate treated with different surgical protocols. A first evaluation had been carried out at the age of 6 years, now the patients have been re-evaluated at the age of 10 years.


METHODS
22 patients had been analyzed in centre 1, 32 patients in centre 2. All patients had presurgical orthopaedics. Centre 1 had lip repair at the age of 3 months and one-stage palatal closure with 1 year. Centre 2 had lip repair with 6 months, soft palate repair at 12 and hard palate repair at the age of 30 months. Sagittal growth was evaluated on lateral cephalograms. As control, data of 35 non-cleft children were used. Statistical analysis was carried out with student's t-test, multiple comparisons with Bonferroni.


RESULTS
There was considerably normal sagittal facial growth in centre 1, with tendency of forward growth of the mandible. In centre 2 there was a slight decrease in sagittal maxillary and mandibular growth with unchanged intergnathic relation. There was no statistically significant difference in sagittal growth between the centres. A re-evaluation has to be carried out after the final growth spurt.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (Head: Prof. Dr. H. Kärcher), Medical University Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 7, Graz, Austria. wolfgang.zemann@medunigraz.at
Wolfgang
W
Zemann
Hans
H
Kärcher
Martina
M
Drevenšek
Vesna
V
Koželj
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002508:Cephalometry; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008437:Maxilla / Q000254:growth & development*; D008445:Maxillofacial Development; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric