Anthropometric profile evaluation of the midface in patients with cleft lip and palate.

This study was done to determine those profile anthropometric measurements that are abnormal in the midface profile in patients with cleft lip and palate. The sample population consisted of 30 randomly selected skeletally mature white patients with cleft lip and palate who had been treated by the same team who were accredited by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. Twenty patients had unilateral and 10 had bilateral complete clefts. None of these patients had previously undergone orthognathic surgery or definitive rhinoplasty surgery. Fifteen facial anthropometric features were measured on each person's face. The result from this study showed that in patients with cleft lip and palate right versus left side differences did not exist and only four statistically significant differences existed between the unilateral and bilateral cases. However, in all patients, four of these esthetic facial features were consistently and significantly abnormal: obtuse nasofrontal angle: obtuse nasomental angle; a posteriorly positioned infraorbitale relative to globe; and an obtuse general facial angle. Several other features were abnormal in a high percentage of persons in this study. These were lack of supratip break, flat to concave paranasal contour, increased subnasale-alargroove:subnasale-pronasale ratio, decreased nasal protrusion:nasal length ratio, decreased nasolabial angle ratio, decreased maxillary length ratio, increased nasal bridge projection:nasal protrusion ratio, and deficient cheek contour. This data indicates that the major deformity in persons with adult cleft lip and palate exist in the nose and secondarily in other components of the midface.

Cephalometric profile evaluations in patients with cleft lip and palate.

This study was done to determine those abnormal cephalometric features found in adult cleft lip and palate patients. The sample population consisted of 30 randomly selected white patients with cleft lip and palate who were treated by the same team that had been accredited by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. Twenty patients had unilateral complete clefts, and 10 had bilateral complete clefts. Thirteen different cephalometric parameters were measured and compared with normal. The results from this study showed that there were few statistically significant differences between the unilateral and bilateral cleft palate patient populations. There were only three measurements that had statistically significant differences between the unilateral cleft patients and the bilateral cleft patients: subnasale-stomion, subnasale-stomion: stomion-soft-tissue menton, and subnasale-lower lip vermillion: lower lip vermillion-soft tissue menton. However, 10 of the 13 measurements had statistically significant variations from normal. These measurements included subnasale=stomion; stomion=soft tissue menton, subnasale=lower lip vermillion; lower lip vermillion=soft tissue menton, interlabial distance, subnasale-perpendicular to upper lip, subnasale-perpendicular to lower lip, subnasale-perpendicular to chin, angle formed between sella turcica=nasion and nasion=A=point, maxillary depth angle, A-point to nasion-pogonion, and angle formed between A=point=nasion and nasion=B=point. The data indicated that a multiplicity of vertical and horizontal abnormalities exist in the person with cleft lip and palate in addition to the well-known transverse deficiencies, and that cephalometric abnormalities are not limited to anteroposterior maxillary deficiency.