Principles of Cleft Lip Repair: Conventions, Commonalities, and Controversies

After reading this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Understand the principles of contemporary methods for repair of unilateral and bilateral cleft lip. 2. Understand the design elements of a poor repair that predispose to a suboptimal outcome.

The authors describe the evaluation and management of unilateral and bilateral cleft lip (with or without cleft alveolus and with or without cleft palate). Each deformity is presented in a "principles-based" manner. For unilateral cleft lip, the authors discuss common modifications of rotation-advancement and Fisher's anatomical subunit approach. In expert hands, both techniques can give excellent results. For bilateral cleft lip, Mulliken's method is presented. Methods for synchronous correction of the cleft lip nasal deformity are also discussed.