Oral Clefts: A review of the cases and our experience at a single institution

Objective: to identify the frequency of different types of oral clefts and presence of known risk factors among patients. methods: the retrospective review of 292 patients, presenting with oral clefts between 1992 and 2011, was conducted at the aga khan university hospital, karachi. a pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect details, including demographics, type of cleft, presence of known risk factors, surgical details, and follow-up visits. spss 16 was used for data analysis. chi-square test and analysis of variance was used: whenever applicable. results: of the total, 168 (57-53%) patients had cleft lip with or without cleft palate, and 124 (42.5%) had cleft palate alone. the most common defect was left-sided complete cleft lip and palate and midline incomplete cleft palate in the two groups respectively. consanguinity among the parents was found to be the most common risk factor (n=50; 17.1%). median age of repair was 4 months for cleft lip and 10 months for cleft palate in the first group. for the other group, the median age of primary repair was 13 months. first-week follow-up after surgery was 50% (n=84) for the lip repair, and 65% (n=81) for palate repair. conclusion: our review revealed that most patients had cleft lip with or without cleft palate (cl/p). the most common risk factor was consanguinity among parents. delay in seeking care, low follow-up rates after surgical repair of the anomaly and lack of involvement of speech therapist and orthodontist was observed.