[Prevention of cheilognathopalatoschisis. Clinical Experience (author's transl)]

Symptomatic prophylaxis for pregnant women in whose relatives facial clefts have appeared has been carried out since 1958. This report of over 20 years' experience shows the difference between data from clinical histories which give a heredity ratio of about 17% and the careful family investigation in families with cheilognathopalatoschisis. These family investigations show (and this is understandable) a considerably higher heredity ratio, because in certain respects they represent a negative selection. Thus we find in the F1-F4 generation of families subject to clefts, values of about 40 to 50%. In contrast there is a treatment group which has undergone symptomatic prophylaxis by administration of vitamins and an oxygen-activating medicament in which a significant lowering of the deformity rate is shown in "cleft-positive" mothers treated in early pregnancy.