Current Concepts in the Surgical Treatment of the Infant with Facial Deformities: The Center Concept

Abstract

Facial-cleft deformities are among the most common birth defects in newborns occurring in pediatric practice. One newborn in every 700 live births is born with a cleft: cleft lip in 25%, cleft palate in 25%, or cleft lip and cleft palate in 50%. This incidence refers to clefts reported in an isolated manner, as opposed to syndromes in which a cleft is a manifestation. Excluded from the incidence data also are the trisomy syndromes. In a given community, the number of patients born with clefts can be roughly determined from the number of live births. For example, at a referral center in the Tampa Bay area with 14,000 live births per year, about 20 newborns with clefts are treated yearly. Spina bifida (one in every 950 live births) is the second most common congenital malformation. The majority of handicapped children with treatable conditions fall into one or both of these categories of defects.