A unilateral cleft lip is a common birth defect in which a baby's lip doesn't form properly, resulting in a split (cleft) on one side of the lip
(as picture shown on the left)
A unilateral cleft lip may appear as a small notch in the edge of the lip only or extend into the nose or gums. A child may be born with just a cleft lip or may have a cleft palate as well, which is a split in the roof of the mouth.
Unilateral Cleft lip can be associated with other problems, including feeding difficulties, fluid buildup in the middle ear and hearing loss, dental abnormalities, and speech difficulties .
The good news is that Unilateral cleft lip is treatable. Most babies born with cleft lip can have surgery to repair the defect between the ages of 4 to 6 months/weight-4-5kg, and will go on to lead normal, healthy lives. They may, however, need to have additional surgeries as they grow older.
For a long time, cleft surgeons feared that repair of the cleft lip nose at the time of primary repair would cause a growth disturbance especially of the nose. Hence the nasal deformity was not repaired until later. However, it has been shown that there are no deleterious growth effect from primary nasal interventions.Dr Parit Ladani has performed primary nasal correction including septal repositioning There has been no deleterious growth effect and the overall appearance of the nose has actually improved. This is now well established through many objective studies. Hence it is now imperative that the deformity of the nose including the septum be addressed at the time of primary unilateral cleft lip repair. .
