Cleft Lip Techniques and Surgical Outcome in Patients Referred To Abuzar Children's Hospital in Ahvaz, Southern Iran.

Background: Cleft lip in infants is associated with severe morphological and functional disorders. Cleft lip is particularly important, which can lead to psychological changes in the patient if the treatment result is not satisfactory. Different surgical methods have been developed in the past decades. We aimed to investigating cleft lip techniques and surgical outcome in patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional analytical study, 32 patients undergoing cleft lip surgery referred to Abuzar Children's Hospital in Ahvaz, southern Iran between 2022 and 2023 were enrolled. According to the surgeon's opinion, the patients underwent cleft lip surgery using the Sommerlad technique. (n=18 or Millard technique (n=14). Surgical Ooutcomes were compared between the two groups.

Results: The mean age was 33.58±59.14 months. 65.6% of patients were boys (n=21). The need for rhinoplasty in the Sommerlad and Millard groups was 100% and 84.6%, respectively, and no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P=0.17). The cupids bow was estimated to be good in 28.6% and 38.9% of patients in the Millard and Sommerlad groups, respectively, while this difference between the two groups was not significant (P=0.51). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the vermilion border (P=0.31). No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of white roll match, lip length and Scar appearance (P>0.05).

Conclusion: No significant difference was observed in the results of lip surgery between the Sommerlad and Millard techniques. Further multicenter studies with larger sample sizes are recommended to validate these results.