ABSTRACT
Alveolar cleft is a congenital maxillofacial deformity, associated with cleft lip and palate. Autologous bone transplantation is the gold standard for alveolar cleft repair. However, this method has many shortcomings. Autogenous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is concentrated platelet, obtained by the centrifugation of fresh autologous whole blood. After activation, a variety of highly concentrated growth factors could be quickly released. Then the PRP gel is formed. It is able to locally conglutinate transplanted bone particles, and prevent the displacement and loss of them. It also could repair tissue defect, prevent platelet loss, promote the platelet secreting growth factors for a long time. The combination of PRP and autologous bone transplantation, to a certain extent, could make up for the limitations of bone transplantation. Therefore, the concept, preparation, application, progress, mechanism and advantages of PRP in alveolar cleft repair were detailedly reviewed.