Morphologic Anomalies of Upper Cervical Vertebrae in Swedish Children Born with Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and/or Palate Compared to Swedish Children without Cleft.

OBJECTIVE

To examine and compare the prevalence of morphologic anomalies of the upper cervical vertebrae in Swedish children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate to Swedish children without cleft.

DESIGN

Retrospective study on lateral cephalograms.

SETTING

Division of Orthodontics, Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

PATIENTS: The cleft group consisted of 325 children (150 girls and 175 boys) born with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate (mean age: 11.1 years). The control group consisted of 325 children without cleft, matched for age and gender.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Lateral cephalograms exposing upper cervical vertebrae (C1-C3) were examined regarding morphologic anomalies such as posterior arch deficiencies, fusion of vertebrae, odontoid anomalies, and deviations of the vertebral artery canal.

RESULTS

The prevalence of children with morphologic anomalies of the upper cervical vertebrae was 24.3% (n = 79) in children with cleft and 12.6% (n = 41) in children without cleft. Posterior arch deficiency and vertebral fusion were significantly more frequent in children with cleft (P < .001). No statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups regarding odontoid and vertebral artery canal anomalies.

CONCLUSIONS

Morphologic anomalies of the upper cervical vertebrae in Swedish children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate were significantly more frequent compared to similar anomalies in Swedish children without cleft.