Surgical Correction of Rare Craniofacial Clefts

ABSTRACT

Facial clefts are uncommon congenital deformities in comparison to the clefts of the lip and palate. the clinical expression of the craniofacial clefts is highly variable. the face can be marred by a faint expression of the cleft or be disfigured by a full representation of the defect. the extent of the soft tissue and skeletal components is also variable, and they are seldom affected to an equal degree. Generally, discription of the clefts are based on the bony malformation, since the skeletal landmarks tend to be more constant. I report six cases of rare craniofacial clefts that I recently experienced. the soft tissue repair was accomplished with local flaps from cheek, eyelid and nose. Additional vertical length was obtained from the lower Z-plasty flaps in the sutures. the coloboma was corrected with local flaps and a cartilage graft, the depression of cheek with a dermofat graft, and the macrostomia with the repositioning of orbicularls oris muscle and a Z-plasty. the results were cosmetically acceptable.