Klippel-Feil anomaly, cleft palate, and bifid tongue

The Klippel-Feil anomaly is a condition characterized by congenital vertebral fusion, which may be associated with a short neck and a low posterior hairline. In the patient presented here, there was congenital cervical fusion, cleft palate, and bifid tongue. The occurrence of cervical fusion and cleft palate has been reported previously, but this is the first report, to the author's knowledge, of these malformations being accompanied by a bifid tongue. The embryological association between Klippel-Feil anomaly and cleft palate has been alluded to on few occasions. Investigators have suggested that the short, fused neck limits movement of the head and thus of the tongue from between the palatal shelves. This report postulates that the mechanism is more complex and that it is based on a change in structural relations between certain key areas involved in the background of palatal shelf elevation.