Effects of Palate Repair on Cranial Base and Maxillary Morphology in Patients With Unilateral Complete Cleft Lip and Palate.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the effects of palate repair on cranial base and maxillary morphology in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and to discover the relevance between cranial base and maxilla through cephalometric analysis.

DESIGN

Retrospective.

PATIENTS: Thirty-seven UCLP patients with operated lip (OL) and unoperated palate constituted OL group and were classified into 5 cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) stages. Thirty-seven UCLP patients with operated lip and palate (OLP) and 37 noncleft people with skeletal class I malocclusion were CVM- and sex-matched with the OL group as OLP group and control group, respectively. CVM stage I and II were combined into group 1, CVM stage III to V were combined into group 2.

INTERVENTIONS: Lateral cephalograms of all participants were obtained.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cephalometric analysis was employed, and data were compared among groups.

RESULTS

Length of posterior cranial base (Ba-S) of the OL group was shorter than controls in group 1; Ba-S and the ratio between length of posterior and anterior cranial base (Ba-S/S-N) of the OL and OLP groups were smaller than controls in group 2. No significant differences in cranial base were found between the OL and OLP groups. In group 1, patients of the OLP group showed smaller SNA, ANS-Ptm, and ANS-Ptm/S-N, and patients of the OL group showed smaller ANS-Ptm. In group 2, both OL and OLP groups had smaller sella-nasion-A point angle (SNA), projection distance between ANS and Ptm points on FH plane (ANS-Ptm), and the ratio between ANS-Ptm and anterior cranial base length (ANS-Ptm/S-N).

CONCLUSIONS

Palate repair seems to have no obvious effects on cranial base morphology in patients with UCLP. Those patients with lip operated, whether cleft palate operated or not, tend to have a smaller length of maxilla sagittally and this deformity progresses with age.