[Renaissance of the Franz König bilateral lip repair procedure - clinical experiences with an one hundred year old...

Surgical correction of bilateral cleft lips is known to have a lot of problems. The surgical principles of treatment of bilateral cleft lips are similar to those of unilateral clefts but differ in the area of the prolabium due to specific anatomical disorders of the orbicularis oris muscle. The postoperative results of simultaneous bilateral cleft lip repair according to König were analysed retrospectively in 15 young children (6.1 +/- 1.1 years) paying special emphasis to the aesthetic and functional postoperative outcome of the upper lip and nose. The mean values were compared with measurements from normal infants at ages 8.3 +/- 1.8 years. Lip height and lip length were in 87 % similar to those of the age-matched normal group. Only two cleft patients showed a slightly shorter lip. Distortions of the lip function were not obvious. Our data show that König's surgical procedure of bilateral cleft lip closure meets the requirements of modern surgical concepts of cleft lip repair and should belong to the armamentarium of modern face surgery.