[The need for clinical guidelines for the comprehensive management of patients with cleft lip and palate].

Objective To identify clinical guidelines for the treatment of cleft lip and / or palate in children under one year of age, published in Colombia and internationally. Method A search was conducted in three databases: PubMed, Lilacs and Scielo with the terms "guideline cleft lip and palate", "protocols cleft lip and palate", "guía clínica labio paladar fisurado", "guía de manejo labio paladar fisurado" and "guía labio paladar hendido". In addition to this, we consulted the websites of all pediatric hospitals in Colombia. Results 190 papers were found, of which 96 were not related to the population or focused on treatment, 84 were disciplinary, 8 interdisciplinary and only two were clinical guidelines. Conclusions There are few published guidelines and there is a lack of unified criteria. This gives rise to numerous forms of intervention and the creation of interdisciplinary teams. Therefore, there is a need to reach a consensus regarding the therapeutic approach in order to create treatment protocols based on evidence with quality standards.