Background:
It is anticipated that in due course the burden of emergency care due to COVID-19 infected patients will reduce sufficiently to permit elective surgical procedures to recommence. Prioritizing cleft/craniofacial surgery in the already overloaded medical system will then become an issue. The European Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association, together with the European Cleft and Craniofacial Initiative for Equality in Care, performed a brief survey to capture a current snapshot during a rapidly evolving pandemic.
Methods:
A questionnaire was sent to the 2242 participants who attended 1 of 3 recent international cleft/craniofacial meetings.
Results:
The respondents indicated that children with Robin sequence who were not responding to nonsurgical options should be treated as emergency cases. Over 70% of the respondents indicated that palate repair should be performed before the age of 15 months, an additional 22% stating the same be performed by 18 months. Placement of middle ear tubes, primary cleft lip surgery, alveolar bone grafting, and velopharyngeal insufficiency surgery also need prioritization. Children with craniofacial conditions such as craniosynostosis and increased intracranial pressure need immediate care, whilst children with craniosynostosis and associated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome or proptosis need surgical care within 3 months of the typical timing. Craniosynostosis without signs of increased intracranial pressure needs correction before the age of 18 months.
Conclusions:
This survey indicates several areas of cleft and craniofacial conditions that need prioritization, but also certain areas where intervention is less urgent. We acknowledge that there will be differences in the post COVID-19 response according to circumstances and policies in individual countries.
The aim of this paper was to assess growth, speech, and aesthetic results at the completion of growth in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate treated with the 2 stages Milan surgical protocol.
Craniofacial growth was evaluated with cephalometric analysis and a theoretical need for orthognathic surgery.
Nasolabial appearance was qualitatively assessed using the Asher McDade Aesthetic Index.
Speech was assessed using the Gos.Sp.Ass ’98 modified for Italian language scoring system.
Burden of care was recorded in terms of number of secondary surgical procedures. All of the patients were treated and evaluated at San Paolo Hospital, Smile House, Milan.
Fifty-two consecutive patients treated by the same surgeon were recalled, 12 patients did not come for assessment.
The first surgical step (average age of 6 months) was cheilorhinoplasty (Millard modified Delaire technique) and soft palate rapair (Pigott). The second step (average age of 35 months) was hard palate and alveolar repair performed simultaneously with an early secondary gengivo alveolo plasty. Fifty-six percent of the patients did not need further surgery after the 2-stage surgery protocol.
The 2-stage surgical protocol of Milano, Smile House, seems to be effective for treatment of unilateral cleft lip and palate, with good results in terms of speech, labial appearance, and alveolar cleft management. Nevertheless, maxillary growth was moderately impaired by the protocol.
The myomucosal buccinator flap, first described by Bozola in 1989, has become an important tool for intraoral defects reconstruction. In the literature, there is a variety of proposed myomucosal cheek flaps, both pedicled and island, based on the buccal or the facial arteries. From January 2007 to December 2011, the authors used a pedicled buccinator flap based posteriorly on the buccal artery to reconstruct partial lingual defects following tumor resection in 27 patients. The buccal fat pad was translated to cover the donor site defect. After 3 to 4 weeks from the original surgery, a second procedure under local anesthesia was performed to detach the pedicle and remodel the flap. The morphological and functional outcomes of the procedures were evaluated by the surgeons and a speech and language therapist. All patients presented satisfactory results. The authors consider the use of the described technique as the gold standard in the reconstruction of partial tongue defects after tumor resection.
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