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The Craniofacial Collaboration UK: Developmental Outcomes in 3-Year-Old Children With Metopic Synostosis
Laura Culshaw1, Katie Piggott1, Helen Care2
1Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool.
Insights
Children with metopic synostosis (MS) show typical development but have statistically significant challenges in prosocial skills and peer interactions by age 3. Further longitudinal studies are needed to understand their developmental trajectory.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric surgery
- Developmental psychology
- Craniofacial anomalies
Background:
- The Craniofacial Collaboration UK (CC-UK) initiative unites 4 specialized centers to advance craniofacial research.
- Previous CC-UK findings have addressed sagittal synostosis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze developmental and behavioral outcomes at 3 years for children with metopic synostosis (MS) post-surgery.
- To identify specific areas of developmental concern in children with MS.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of parent-report measures for developmental and behavioral domains.
- Comparison of outcomes for children with MS against population norms.
- Focus on data from the third wave of the CC-UK study.
Main Results:
- Most children with MS fell within 1 standard deviation of normative means.
- Statistically significant group mean differences were observed in developmental and behavioral domains.
- Prosocial skills and peer difficulties were identified as key parental concerns, with prosocial skills below age expectations.
Conclusions:
- Children with metopic synostosis exhibit specific developmental and behavioral challenges, particularly in social skills.
- Longitudinal studies are essential for understanding the developmental trajectory of single-suture craniosynostosis.
- The ongoing CC-UK study provides a platform for such crucial long-term research.
Abstract:
The Craniofacial Collaboration UK (CC-UK) has been established across the 4 highly specialized craniofacial centers in the UK since 2015. This joint collective aims to address the current limitations within developmental craniofacial research, using robust clinical data from a homogenous sample of children. This paper presents the third wave of findings from the CC-UK, with consideration to developmental and behavioral parent-report measures. Whilst previous data for sagittal synostosis have been presented, this article summarizes the analysis of these outcomes for children with metopic synostosis (MS) at 3 years who have undergone primary corrective surgery. Results highlight similar patterns to that of earlier CC-UK work, with the majority of children falling within 1 standard deviation of the population normative means across all measures. However, statistically significant difficulties were found between group means for children with MS on various developmental and behavioral domains. Prosocial skills and peer difficulties were reported as the greatest areas of behavioral concern for parents, with prosocial skills found to be below the level expected for their chronological age. In order to further understand the developmental trajectory of children with MS, longitudinal examination of individual diagnostic and specific age groups with single-suture craniosynostosis is crucial. The continuation of the CC-UK provides an opportunity to attain this goal.