A survey of cleft lip and palate management taught in training programs in Korea

A national survey was conducted to obtain an overall view of the status, assess changes in trends of cleft management, and study new categories of interest.

Questionnaires were sent to 90 chief residents of all Korean institutes with plastic surgery training programs.

Forty-eight respondents returned completed questionnaires. The results were: (1) the most common unilateral cleft lip repair method used is the rotation-advancement technique (100%); (2) 73% of respondents correct cleft lip nasal deformity at preschool age; (3) the Millard technique is the most common management in bilateral cleft lip repair (65%); (4) in the management of protruding premaxilla, 44% of the respondents choose presurgical orthopedics; (5) the usual cleft palate repairs are the pushback (64%) and double-opposing Z-plasty (43%) in complete cleft palates and the double-opposing Z-plasty (75%) and pushback (36%) comprised the common techniques in incomplete cases; (6) 86% of responding programs perform alveolar cleft repairs during the period of mixed dentition; the most common treatment of velopharyngeal incompetence is pharyngeal flap (71%); and (8) the interdisciplinary team approach is practiced by 64% of respondents.

Many changes were noted since a previous 1995 survey. We hope that this study provides the necessary information needed for the eventual establishment of standard cleft management in Korea.