Nonsurgical correction of cleft lip nasal deformity in the early neonate.

Auricular cartilage is soft and plastic, and congenital auricular deformities are easily corrected nonsurgically in the early neonatal period. Alar cartilage is the same kind of elastic cartilage as auricular cartilage. Therefore, alar cartilage is also malleable in the early neonate. When cleft lip repair is performed around the age of three months, it is difficult to obtain good nasal shape without surgical correction. In the early neonate, there is a fair possibility for success in the nonsurgical correction of cleft lip nasal deformity. We performed cleft lip repair accompanied with nonsurgical correction of nasal deformity in 48 neonates aged two to seven days. A special retainer was placed in the affected nostril during the postoperative period for three months. In 10 cases, preoperative nonsurgical correction with a special retainer began in the early neonatal period and the lip repair was done at about three months of age. Following observation of 40 infants for 12 months or longer, their nasal shapes and symmetry were considered superior to those conventionally operated on at about three months of age without nonsurgical correction of their nasal deformity during the early neonatal period. Except for one case of nasal infection, there were no other complications.