title: Postoperative complications from primary repair of cleft lip and palate in a semi-urban Nigerian teaching hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper seeks to investigate the incidence of short-term postoperative complications in children and adult patients undergoing primary surgery of cleft lip and palate.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and fifteen patients consisting of children (below 12 years) and adult (12 years and above) who were operated for both cleft lip and palate within a 2-year period at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital were reviewed postoperatively at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year intervals, respectively. The complications encountered within the periods of the review were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and twenty surgeries were performed on 115 patients (85 children 30 Adults). A total of 43 complications (31 in children and 12 in adults) were recorded over the study period. Eighteen (41.9%) of these complications were noticed in unilateral cleft lip repair, while 12 (27.9%) and 13 (30.2%) complications were observed in bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries, respectively. A higher complication rate (72.0%) was recorded in children compared with adults. Major complications (13.9%) were, however, observed more in adults than children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although every surgeon attempts to prevent complications during surgery, they may still occur. The high complication rate observed in our study may be due to a small sample size. General complications observed among children are due to cross infection during a hospital stay, contributing immensely to the higher rate of complications in children. Moreover, this may be reduced by short hospital stay following surgery. We also advocate early contact with children with cleft, and early surgical intervention in other to prevent some of the major complications encountered in adult patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Oluwafemi Adewale
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Adesina
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Akinwale Adeyemi
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Efunkoya
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Kelvin Uchenna
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Omeje
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Paul Ikhodaro
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Idon
keywords: Cleft lip and palate; postoperative complication; primary repair