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Birth weight, body length, and cranial circumference in newborns with cleft lip or palate
M Becker1, H Svensson, B Källén
1Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Sweden.
Insights
Infants with isolated cleft palate or cleft lip and palate are lighter and shorter at birth than healthy newborns. Isolated cleft lip in newborns does not affect birth measurements.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Medicine
- Craniofacial Anomalies
- Public Health
Background:
- Cleft lip and/or palate are common congenital anomalies.
- Birth anthropometry is a key indicator of infant health.
- Understanding growth patterns in infants with clefts is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze birth weight, body length, BMI, and cranial circumference in infants with cleft lip and/or palate.
- To compare anthropometric data of affected infants with a large control group.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from Swedish national health registries (1973-1992).
- Excluded infants with syndromes, twins, and immigrant parentage.
- Compared 2,815 infants with clefts against 2,031,140 singleton controls.
Main Results:
- Infants with isolated cleft lip showed no significant differences in body dimensions compared to controls.
- Infants with isolated cleft palate or cleft lip and palate were significantly lighter and shorter.
- Infants with Pierre Robin sequence exhibited a trend towards lower birth weight and length, though not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- Isolated cleft palate and cleft lip and palate are associated with reduced fetal growth.
- Early anthropometric assessment is important for infants diagnosed with cleft lip and/or palate.
- Further research may elucidate the specific growth impacts of Pierre Robin sequence.
Objective:
This paper reports on birth weight, body length, body mass index, and cranial circumference at birth of infants with cleft lip and/or palate born between 1973 and 1992.
Methods:
Data were obtained from two nationwide Swedish health registries. Infants with syndromes, twins, and infants with immigrant parentage were excluded from the study. Comparisons were made with all singleton births with the same exclusion criteria (n = 2,031,140).
Results:
The body dimensions of infants with isolated cleft lip (n = 865) were found not to differ from those of control subjects, but infants with isolated cleft palate (n = 811) or cleft lip and palate (n = 1139) were found to be lighter and shorter than control subjects. Also, infants with the Pierre Robin sequence (n = 121) had a tendency to be lighter and shorter than control subjects, but these differences did not reach statistical significance despite the large study population.