Comparison of soft-tissue changes after the surgical repair of unilateral cleft lip side to noncleft lip side: An anthropometric study

Mohamed Abdul Wajid, Rohit Kulshrestha, Ramji Rastogi, Deepak Kumar, Kamlesh Singh, Mohamed Abdul Ateeq

Journal of Cleft Lip Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies 2017 4(3):139-143

Aim: The aim of this article was to compare the tissue contraction after the surgical repair of unilateral cleft lip side to noncleft lip side. Materials and Methods: Forty patients with unilateral cleft lip only were used as subjects. They were divided into two groups based on gender (20 males and 20 females). Measurements of soft-tissue landmarks of cleft side and noncleft side were compared after surgical repair of the lip to check for soft-tissue contractions. A vernier caliper was used to measure the linear measurements, and all the measurements were measured directly on the patients' lips. Results: When gender comparison was done, it was found to be significant only for oral commissure to the peak of Cupid's bow for both cleft and noncleft sides (P < 0.05). When comparison between the two sides (left and right) was done, a significant difference was observed only for subalar to peak of Cupid's bow measurement which was found to be significantly larger at noncleft as compared to cleft side in overall assessment (P = 0.005) and in females (P = 0.046); however, this difference was not statistically significant when evaluated for males alone (P = 0.060). Conclusion: Marked soft-tissue contraction was seen after surgical repair of the unilateral cleft lip, more was seen in females. This indicates that adequate planning and accurate surgical techniques and measurements should be taken while approximating the two lip flaps both in vertical and in horizontal direction before planning the surgery to get the best esthetic result for the patients.

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