Rethinking the Rule of 10s: Early Cleft Lip Repair Improves Weight Gain.

OBJECTIVE

This study compares patients undergoing early cleft lip repair (ECLR) (<3-months) and traditional lip repair (TLR) (3-6 months) with/without nasoalveolar molding (NAM) to evaluate the effects of surgical timing on weight gain in hopes of guiding future treatment paradigms.

DESIGN

Retrospective review.

SETTING

Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, California.

PATIENT, PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective chart review evaluated patients who underwent ECLR or TLR ± NAM from November 2009 through January 2020.

INTERVENTIONS

No intervention was performed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Patient demographics, birth and medical history, perioperative variables, and complications were collected. Infant weights and age-based percentiles were recorded at birth, surgery, 8-weeks, 6-months, 12-months, and 24-months postoperatively. The main outcomes were weight change and weight percentile amongst ECLR and TLR ± NAM groups.

RESULTS

107 patients met inclusion criteria: ECLR,  = 51 (47.6%); TLR + NAM,  = 35 (32.7%); and TLR-NAM,  = 21 (19.6%). ECLR patients had significantly greater changes in weight from surgery to 8-weeks and from surgery to 24-months postoperatively compared with both TLR ± NAM ( < .05). Age-matched weights in the ECLR group were significantly greater than TLR ± NAM at multiple time points postoperatively ( < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

ECLR significantly increased patient weights 24-months postoperatively when compared to TLR ± NAM. Specifically compared to TLR-NAM, ECLR weights were significantly greater at all time points past 6-months postoperatively. The results of this study demonstrate that ECLR can mitigate feeding difficulties and malnutrition traditionally seen in patients with cleft lip.