Oro-facial clefting : experience at King Hussein Medical Center

Abstract EN

Objective : To evaluate and analyze patterns and factors associated with the epidemiology of cleft lip and palate in one of the most active centers for craniofacial care in Amman, Jordan.

Method: The records of 656 cleft lip and cleft palate subjects who attended the Orthodontic Department at Royal Rehabilitation Centre were registered in the Cleft Lip/Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies Registry.

The sample was collected from January, 2013 to April, 2014.

Variables such as cleft type and side, gender, age, family history, any associated syndromes, and prenatal diagnosis were all recorded and later analyzed.

Results : Regarding the cleft type; the most prevalent type was cleft lip and palate (43 %) then isolated cleft lip (20 %) followed by isolated cleft palate (8 %).

Bilateral cleft lip and palate was more common than bilateral cleft lip only with (21 %) and (7 %) respectively.

Also, more clefts were found in male patients (386) than females (270), males predominated females incomplete cleft lip and palate type anomaly with 277 and 152 respectively; whereas, approximately equal numbers reported in isolated cleft lip and cleft palate among both genders.

A range from 7 days to 30 years were registered in this study, with an average age (11.5 ± 5.68).

A positive family history of clefting from father and mother side was seen in (3.8 %) of cases.

4 % of total cases had a diagnosed syndrome.

Only 3 % of parents had prior knowledge for their child CLP deformity via the routine prenatal ultrasound diagnosis.

Conclusion: this descriptive study for a pool of cleft lip palate patients revealed no significant differences from available national and regional epidemiological data.

Further, joint hospital research and cooperation are needed to give a broader picture of the patterns and variables associated with cleft lip palate anomalies in Jordan.

Prenatal diagnosis via ultrasound routine examination should be implemented and reviewed for routine screening of oral clefting.