Cleft Lip and Palate

Infants with cleft lip and palate often benefit from presurgical infant orthopedic treatment before surgical repair. Multiple standard of care approaches are selected based on each infant's clinical presentation and family circumstances. This prospective observational cohort study will evaluate clinical outcomes, treatment efficiency, and family burden using routinely collected clinical records and photographs to support individualized, evidence-based PSIO treatment planning.

Despite significant progress made in identification on numerous genes and gene pathways critical for craniofacial development, several approaches, ie mutation screening of specific candidates, association studies and even genome-wide scans have largely failed to reveal the molecular basis of NS human clefting

The purpose of this study is to see if the addition of IV Ketorolac to usual care multi-modal pain therapy compared to usual care will improve oral intake post-operatively

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate if the use of Bone Morphogenic Protein(BMP)/Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM) versus the use of autologous Iliac Crest Bone Graft (ICBG) will result in an increase in total cost effectiveness for patients undergoing alveolar bone graft (ABG) for Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP) and to see if patients who are treated with DBM/BMP will have reduced post-operative pain scores,reduced operative times,and similar rates of bone healing compared to conventional ICBG.

This prospective, randomized study is designed to compare the efficacy and safety of three sedative-analgesic agents-intramuscular ketamine, intranasal nalbuphine, and intranasal dexmedetomidine-for procedural sedation in children undergoing suture removal following cleft palate, alveolar ridge, or lip surgery. The study will include 60 children aged 6 months to 3 years, randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups. The primary objectives are to compare time to achieve adequate sedation (Modified Ramsay Sedation Scale 2-3), surgeon-rated ease of surgical procedure, and time to discharge readiness (Modified Aldrete Score ≥9). Secondary outcomes include baseline child behavior, response to drug administration, depth of sedation, response to separation from parents, and parental satisfaction, as well as monitoring of perioperative complications and vital signs. All study medications are approved and commonly used in pediatric anesthesia. The trial will be conducted using non-invasive monitoring, with intravenous access established only in case of emergency interventions. Findings from this study are expected to provide evidence to optimize pediatric sedation protocols for minor surgical procedures.

Congenital malformations of the orofacial area are the most common congenital malformations in children with an incidence of 1.8 children with orofacial cleft per 1000 healthy births in the Czech Republic. The care of children with cleft facial defects is multidisciplinary, centralized and takes place from birth to adulthood. At the University Hospital Brno, the treatment for patients with orofacial cleft is provided by the Cleft Center (CC) of the University Hospital Brno. The main specialties that form the basis of CC include plastic surgery, pediatric anesthesiology and neonatology. Patients with facial cleft defects are divided into 2 main groups based on the embryological causes of clefts: 1/ patients with cleft lip, jaw with or without cleft palate (total cleft) and 2/ patients with isolated cleft soft and hard palate. Anesthesia in children with orofacial clefts is specific not only to the age of the patients, but mainly to the cleft itself. Anesthesiology management, and especially intubation of these patients, are often difficult due to the nature of the defect with high incidence of complications such as difficult airway, desaturation, laryngospasm or bradycardia. In addition, tissue damage including soft tissue of the lip, alveolar arch, palate and nasal septum as well as skeleton of the premaxilla and nasal septum during intubation is seen in approximately 90% of patients. To facilitate intubation, improve anesthesiology management and safety of pediatric patients with orofacial cleft, we will develop an individualized protective tray from a silicone material, that will be used during intubation to cover the defect of the alveolar arch and palate. A mold for casting of a protective tray, will be created on a 3D printer on bases of 3D scan. Use of the protective tray would facilitate intubation, decrease anesthesiologic complications and protect soft and hard tissues of the cleft palate and upper jaw during intubation.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if the aligners can expand upper dental arch in patients with cleft lip and palate at age of 6-8 years old to correct their collapsid archs. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does aligners can achieve transverse dento-skeletal changes? Does aligners can achieve anteroposterior and vertical dento-skeletal changes? Participants will: Wear sequence of aligners (each for 10 days). Visit the clinic every month for checkups. 3D x-ray and intraoral scan will be taken after completion of the aligners set to evaluate the intervention.

A cleft (lip and) palate (CP±L) is the most common congenital abnormality of the face and skull with a significant social impact, affecting speech, hearing, feeding, oral behavior, dentition and satisfaction with appearance. These consequences have a long-term and negative impact on social integration and well-being. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the significant financial costs, including morbidity, health care costs, emotional distress and social exclusion for patients, their families and society. The purpose of this study is to compare high- and low-intensity speech intervention in children with CP±L based on the perceptions of the providers of the intervention (primary care speech-language pathologists) and the recipients of the intervention (children with CP±L and their caregivers). Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted with both intervention providers and recipients to explore perceptions and experiences, as well as acceptability of the two speech intervention intensities. Potential participants will be told that the interview will be recorded. The actual interviews will take place at a location and time that is most convenient for the participants. Each interview will be recorded using a Roland R-05 high-quality audio recorder. After conducting the interviews, all participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their demographics. In addition, data regarding the type of cleft, time and manner of closure of the cleft, any secondary surgery and otological/audiological data will be collected from the medical records of the children with CP±L. Based on this qualitative study, possible adjustments to the high-intensity therapy protocol can be made. In doing so, these modifications will be relevant to these key stakeholders. This will also facilitate the implementation and widespread use of high-intensity speech therapy in clinical speech therapy practice.

Achieving speech that is understandable and acceptable to others is the key outcome in cleft treatment. Therefore, speech therapy provided by a speech-language pathologist is necessary. This intervention is traditionally provided twice per week for 30 minutes for months or even years by first-line speech-language pathologists. Unfortunately, this low intensity intervention is based on a historical context rather than scientific evidence. This means that current speech therapy knows several shortcomings including poor outcomes, treatment fatigue and high costs related to year-long therapy. Because of these issues, the use of high intensity speech intervention is proposed. Even though solid proof-of-concepts exist for this model, it has not yet found its way into clinical practice. Before this intensity can be implemented and utilized in clinical practice, the effect of this novel program on a larger societal scale must be determined. This project will compare the effect of high intensity and low intensity speech intervention in children with a cleft palate in terms of speech, quality of life, and cost-utility as provided by first-line speech-language pathologists by conducting a large-scale randomized controlled trial. The final goal is to utilize this program in clinical practice and to create awareness of the benefits for children with a cleft palate among stakeholders.

Cleft lip and palate patients are commonly seen among maxillofacial patients. Patients with cleft lip and palate have evident cosmetic nasal deformities. The interrupted insertion of orbicularis oris muscle into the columella on the noncleft side forces the premaxilla, columella and caudal nasal septum towards that side. At the same time, as the orbicularis oris inserts into the alar base on the cleft side, the base is pulled laterally, inferiorly and posteriorly. The malformed lower lateral cartilage on the side of the cleft contributes majorly to the deformity of the nasal tip, causing it to be more blunt. A shorter medial crus and longer lateral crus on the cleft side results in a horizontally wider and displaced nostril on the cleft side. In addition, those patients have alveolar bone defect which results in both cosmetic and dental problems. Repair of the deformed nose along with the reconstruction of the alveolar defect may have an advantage over the staged repair in:- decrease the surgical burden on the patient , correction of the facial asymmetry by redeeming the maxillary bony support , peri-alar augmentation and accordingly obtaining faster and better socio-cosmetic benefit .

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a pain medication called liposomal bupivacaine (brand name EXPAREL®) with epinephrine will provide better pain control, increased activity, and reduced use of opioids compared with the standard treatment for patients age 6 years and older with cleft lip and palate who have had an alveolar bone graft surgery. Investigators will look at: * pain scores at hip and jaw sites * opioid use in amount and frequency * scores on activity questionnaires Researchers will compare the results of these items with those of patients who had the standard treatment of bupivacaine with epinephrine.

The present study will compare the effectiveness of adhesive nasoalveolar molding (GS-NAM) and conventional nasoalveolar molding on the alveolar ridge, nasal, and labial growth in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate. objectives: - 1. Evaluation of the anatomical position of the greater and lesser segments of the maxilla related to a stable midline anatomical point. 2. Evaluation of the nasal symmetry.

The study is a randomized clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of a dual light ultrasonic toothbrush on periodontal health in orthodontic patients undergoing surgery. Patients with cleft lip and palate undergo bone graft and orthognathic surgery. The study will compare the periodontal outcomes in patients who use these toothbrushes during the post-surgical period.

Phase I/II, controlled, open-label, randomized, single site clinical trial to assess the safety and feasibility, as well as hint efficacy evidence of a bioengineered palate mucosa substitute on nanostructured fibrin-agarose scaffolds with autologous mucosa tissue-specific cells (culture-expanded fibroblasts and keratinocytes), for tissue replacement and repair of donor area after the reconstruction of palate cleft defects (staphylorraphy), in comparison with standard care for donor mucosa.

Speech therapy in children with a palate deals with two scientific challenges that will be addressed in this project. The first challenge is selecting the best speech approach for a child with a specific cleft speech characteristic (CSC). Many speech therapists use a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to treat compensatory CSCs resulting in poor short- and long-term speech outcomes. To increase the effectiveness and quality of cleft speech care, it is necessary to find the best match between a specific therapy and a given type of CSC. Therefore, this proposal will compare the effect of 3 different speech approaches on the speech and quality of life in Dutch speaking children with different types of CSCs. The second challenge is selecting the best speech approach to enhance long-term learning and transfer of newly established speech skills to untrained consonants. To date, research mainly focused on immediate therapy effects. It is unknown if permanent speech changes occur. Hence, this project will also investigate the short-term and long-term learning effects (retention and transfer) of the different speech approaches from the first objective. This proposal will improve evidence-based and patient-tailored cleft speech therapy.

The goal of this observational study is to test the questionnaire CLEFT-Q in a population of patients with cleft lip and/or palate. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Are CLEFT-Q scores reliable over time? 2. Can CLEFT-Q detect change following surgical treatment intervention? 3. What is the norm for CLEFT-Q within a control population who do not have cleft lip and/or palate? 4. What is the Minimal Clinically Important Change of CLEFT-Q in different subpopulations of cleft lip and/or palate? 5. Do changes in CLEFT-Q scores correlate with changes in objective outcomes following a surgical intervention? 6. What are the main expectations that patients express before a surgical intervention? 7. How do patients perceive that the results after surgical interventions meet their expectations? 8. Do patients express concepts of importance postoperatively that are not examined by CLEFT-Q? 9. How do healthcare professionals perceive that the use of CLEFT-Q affects clinical decisions and processes? Participants will 1. Fill out the questionnaire CLEFT-Q twice with a two-week space. 2. Before and 1 year after an operation. 3. Be interviewed about their experiences related to an operation or using CLEFT-Q. Researchers will compare results from the cleft lip and palate population to see if there is a difference between them and a population without cleft lip and palate.

The purpose of this study is to explore the genetic basis of reproductive disorders and cleft lip and/or palate.

Orofacial clefts are the second most common birth deformity and vary in etiology and phenotype, e.g. isolated cleft palate, cleft lip or cleft lip palate. Especially newborns with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate (UCLP) present severe facial asymmetries auch as a broad and flat ala of the nose, a deviation of the columella and the philtrum to the non cleft side. Since postnatal asymmetries can even remain after surgical lip closure in a alleviated shape, therapeutic presurgical orthodontic approaches to improve symmetrie of the nose and to achieve ideal conditions for lip surgery are essential. Presurgical orthodontic treatment for newborns with UCLP start within the first days after birth to separate oral and nasal cavitiy, to improve breathing and feeding and to regulate growth of the maxillary segments using passive appliances (passive Alveolar Molding (pAM)). An advanced and widely spread concept is the Nasoalveolar Molding (NAM) by Grayson, which was first introduced in 1993 as a palate plate combined with a nasal stent as a non-invasive presurgical appliance to stimulate growth of the nose and use the postnatal potential to modulate the nasal cartilage. The aim of the NAM therapy is to reduce nasal width, to reduce deviation of the columella to the non cleft side and to increase nostril height. However, due to inhomogeneous study designs and results, so far only a slightly positive effect using NAM therapy could be detected and prospective, randomized clinical trials are necessary. The aim of the study is to analyse and to compare the effects of pAM versus NAM treatment in newborns with UCLP in the first year of life. The following parameters will be analysed on defined study time points: nostril width, nasal morphology, cleft width, maxillary growth, statical and dynamical facial asymmetries and facial perception.