Cleft lip and palate
Cleft lip and palate
Classification and external resources
ICD-10
Q35.-Q37.
ICD-9
749
DiseasesDB
29604 29414
eMedicine
ped/2679
Cleft lip (cheiloschisis) and cleft palate (palatoschisis) (col-
loquially known as harelip), which can also occur to-
gether as cleft lip and palate, are variations of a type of
clefting congenital deformity caused by abnormal facial
development during gestation. Note that harelip is now
considered as a derogatory term. A cleft is a fissure or
opening -- a gap. It is the non-fusion of the body’s natur-
al structures that form before birth.
Clefts can also affect other parts of the face, such as
the eyes, ears, nose, cheeks and forehead. In 1976, Dr.
Paul Tessier described fifteen lines of cleft. These
craniofacial clefts are rare and are frequently described
as Tessier clefts using the numerical locator devised by
Dr. Tessier.[1]
A cleft lip or palate can be successfully treated with
surgery soon after birth. Cleft lips or palates occur in
somewhere between one in 600-800 births.
Cleft lip
If the cleft does not affect the palate structure of the
mouth it is referred to as cleft lip. Cleft lip is formed in
the top of the lip as either a small gap or an indentation
in the lip (partial or incomplete cleft) or it continues in-
to the nose (complete cleft). Lip cleft can occur as a one
sided (unilateral) or two sided (bilateral). It is due to the
failure of fusion of the maxillary and medial nasal pro-
cesses (formation of the primary palate).
Unilateral
incomplete
Unilateral
complete
Bilateral
complete
A mild form of a cleft lip is a microform cleft. A micro-
form cleft can appear as small as a little dent in the red
part of the lip or look like a scar from the lip up to the
nostril. In some cases muscle tissue in the lip under-
neath the scar is affected and might require reconstruct-
ive surgery. It is advised to have newborn infants with a
microform cleft checked with a craniofacial team as
soon as possible to determine the severity of the cleft.
3 month old boy befo