Incidence of Symptomatic Submucous Cleft Palate in the Netherlands: A Retrospective Cohort Study Over a Period of 22 Years.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the incidence of submucous cleft palate (SMCP) in a large national database and raise awareness among referring providers: pediatricians, speech pathologists, and dentists to minimize delay in diagnosis.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

Tertiary setting.

PATIENTS: Patients were extracted from the "Dutch Association for Cleft and Craniofacial Anomalies" database. A total of 6916 patients were included from 1997 until 2018 and divided into 2 groups (ie, SMCP versus cleft palate [CP]). Patients born before 1997 and adopted patients were excluded.

INTERVENTIONS: Clefts were classified as either hard of soft palatal involvement based on anatomical landmarks at first consultation.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes were the patient characteristics in both groups (ie, gender, birth weight, gestational age, and additional anomalies). Secondary outcome was the time of diagnosis among subgroups.

RESULTS

In total, 532 patients were diagnosed with SMCP (7.7%). Birth weight, gestational age, and additional anomalies did not differ between subgroups, but there were more males in the SMCP group (P < .001). The median age of diagnosis of the SMCP group was significantly higher than of the CP group (987 vs 27 days; P < .001). Over the course of 22 years, the time of diagnosis for SMCP did not decrease.

CONCLUSION

Submucous cleft palate represents <10% of the Dutch cleft population and 19.4% of all CP. Time of diagnosis for SMCP is significantly longer when compared with time of diagnosis of CP, and this has not changed over the study period of 22 years.