Early Cleft Lip Repair and Its Effect on Infant Weight Gain

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is the most common congenital birth defect of the head and neck. Infants with CLP experience difficulties with feeding, leading to low weight gain and failure to thrive.1 At our institution, a paradigm shift has occurred where children with unilateral cleft lip defects are repaired in the late neonatal to early infantile period.2 Before the introduction of early cleft lip repair (ECLR), wide complete cleft lip defects were treated with adjuvant nasoalveolar molding (NAM) and repaired at the age of 3-6 months.

Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery - September 30, 2020 Category: ENT & OMF Authors: K. Ngo, J. Wlodarczyk, A. Raghuram, W. Magee, M. Urata, J. Hammoudeh Source Type: research