Objective: After introducing a new descriptive recording system for congenital craniofacial abnormalities in The Netherlands, common oral clefts are highlighted.
Design: Prospective observational study.
Setting: Fifteen cleft palate teams, united in the Dutch Association for Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies, registered patients from 1997 to 2006.
Patients: All unoperated patients with a common oral cleft were included.
Main outcome measures: Detailed information and birth prevalence rates of cleft lip/alveolus, cleft lip/alveolus and palate, and cleft palate were provided, relating referral age, gender, family history, additional congenital abnormalities, and syndrome diagnoses to these three categories.
Results: This study included 3512 patients, resulting in an overall prevalence of 16.6 per 10,000 live births. Patients showed a cleft lip/alveolus (28%), a cleft lip/alveolus and palate (39%), or a cleft palate (33%). The three categories exhibited very heterogeneous cleft types. Mean referral age was 5.8 months (median 3 weeks). Birth weight was the lowest in cleft palate patients (3238 g; p < .001 to .009). Cleft palate patients showed less positive family history concerning congenital anomalies (23%, p < .001 to .013), but more syndrome diagnoses were established in this category (24%, p < .001). Ten percent of all cleft patients showed additional abnormalities of the head and neck area, and 13% displayed congenital anomalies of other systems.
Conclusions: This new recording method allows adequate description of common oral clefts. Many cleft types exist within these three categories and should be differentiated, because they originate from different time frames and/or cell biological mechanisms during embryogenesis.