Editorials

Managing cleft lip and palate

The management of cleft lips and palates, owing to their complex and protean nature, is often unsatisfactory. Worryingly, the two British centres in a recent study of six European centres had the worst results.¹ A Medline search shows that over the past two years 25 publications have reported the results of cleft surgery: 16 from continental Europe, four from the United States, two from other countries, and one from Britain. This year's July/August issue of the German maxillofacial journal, Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Mund-Kiefer und Gesichtschirurgie, is almost entirely devoted to cleft lip and palate surgery. Why are British results poor and British studies of outcome conspicuous by their absence?

Continental Europe seems to have a different approach to cleft surgery. One important difference is anatomical specialisation. Although this is usual in most other British surgical specialties, cleft surgery has often remained one . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Morgan, B D G, Williams, A., Sandy, J., Smyth, A. G, Davies, G. (1998). Report on cleft lip and palate surgery. BMJ 316: 1461-1461 [Full text]  
• Davies, G., Partridge, J. (1996). Managing cleft lip and palate. BMJ 312: 252c-253 [Full text]  
• Timmons, M J (1995). Managing cleft lip and palate. BMJ 311: 1431-1431 [Full text]  
• Harding, A., Harland, K. (1995). Language outcomes are important. BMJ 311: 1432-1432 [Full text]  
• Pigott, R W (1995). Trials of management are inevitably long. BMJ 311: 1431a-1431 [Full text]  
• Cabre, A., Gibbin, K. P, Henley, M., Nashed, R. N (1995). Specialised multidisciplinary team can solve problems of distance. BMJ 311: 1431b-1432 [Full text]  
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