Frequencies of Different Types of Cleft Lip, Cleft Lip with Palate and Cleft Palate in Bangladeshi Children.

Cleft lip and cleft palate, also known as orofacial cleft, is a group of conditions that includes Cleft lip (CL), Cleft palate (CP) and both together (CLP). Cleft lip with/or palate are the major human orofacial congenital malformations seen in live birth as well as in still birth. This descriptive cross sectional study was done to determine how the different types of Cleft lip (CL), Cleft lip with palate (CLP) and Cleft palate (CP) are distributed among Bangladeshi Children. This study was performed at a health screening camp for patients with cleft lip with/or palate at Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Dhaka. A total 30 patients irrespective of their age and gender, presenting with cleft lip with/or palate deformities were included in the study. A questionnaire was constructed to be filled out by the present researcher through a face-to-face interview with the respondent preferably the mother. The data were organized and analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 20). Looking frequencies of different types of cleft lip with/or palate some trends can be noted regarding the laterality, completeness, extent, side involved and involvement of the alveolus. Out of the 14 CL cases, only 1 (7.14%) showed bilateral cleft. This cleft was complete but simple. All the others were unilateral cleft. A vast majority 9(about 65%) of the cleft lips belonged to the unilateral incomplete left sided simple type. One (7.14%) showed unilateral incomplete right sided simple type of CL. Only 2(14.28%) cases involved the alveolus. Out of the 11 CLP cases, unilateral cleft lip was present in 8 (more than 70% cases). Among them 6 cases showed complete cleft lip and 2 cases showed incomplete cleft lip. Out of all CLP cases 1 but all showed complete cleft palate. The most common type of CLP was "unilateral complete left sided compound cleft lip with unilateral complete left sided cleft palate" present in 5 of the children (i.e. more than 45% of the CLP cases and more than 16% of all cleft cases). Out of the 5 CP cases, only 1(20%) had involvement of the uvula plus posterior part of the soft palate. The rest 4(80%) had involvement of soft palate. Cleft lip with/or palate commonly occurred in Bangladeshi children. Genetic and environmental factors cause this birth defect. Therefore, integrated research among those factors is essential to prevent this birth defect.