Secondary correction of the bilateral cleft lip nose by excision of the columellar forked flap and nasal remodelling with reverse-U flaps: a preliminary report.

Although the forked flap procedure has been widely used as a technique to lengthen the columella in the bilateral cleft lip deformity, often the results are unfavourable. We describe a technique to achieve a more natural shape, in which the unsatisfactory forked flap is excised and the columella is reconstructed by mobilization and rotation of nasal skin, combined with bilateral reverse-U flaps. Five consecutive patients who underwent this secondary correction procedure are presented.