[Management of nasolabial clefts: the issue in Dakar]

The management of patients with a cleft lip in developing countries is often the prerogative of humanitarian missions from developed countries. The goal of our work is to conduct a first epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic assessment of the management of cleft lips by a local team and to evidence the difficulties faced by us in our working conditions. In a retrospective study covering a period of about five years (January 2004 to March 2009), 205 cases of nasolabial clefts are assembled. The mean age at the time of the first visit is 17 months. A slight female predominance is observed. The majority of patients are from the capital city. A close relative with a cleft is found in 6.8% of them. In 44.9% of cases, it is a simple cleft lip. A cleft palate is associated in 47.8% of cases. Associated malformations are observed in 10.5% of cases. We operated on 110 patients. The mean age at the first surgery is two years. Millard's technique is our technique of choice. No operative mortality is observed. In 17.4% of cases, operative morbidity occurred in the form of suppuration with partial or complete early suture release. The esthetic result is satisfactory in 67.7% of cases. This management could be improved by creating a multidisciplinary team including--in addition to surgeons--dentists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, etc.