European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CONGENITAL CLEFT LIP AND PALATE IN SOHAG GOVERNORATE

*Magda Mohamed Ali and Samia Saied

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cleft of the lip and palate represent a major public health problem due to the possible associated life-long morbidity, Complex aetiology and the extensive multidisciplinary commitment required for intervention. Cleft are generally divided into two groups, isolated cleft palate and cleft lip or syndromatic disorders. These defects arise in about 1·7 per 1000 live born babies, with ethnic and geographic variation. Effects on speech, hearing, appearance and psychology can lead to long lasting adverse outcomes for health and social integration. Typically, children with these disorders need multidisciplinary care from birth to adulthood and have higher morbidity and mortality throughout life than do unaffected individuals (1). Epidemiologically, a known environmental and genetic risk factors and their interaction play a role in incidence of clefts. Although access to care these patients, have increased in recent years, especially in developing countries, quality of care still varies substantially. Prevention is the ultimate objective for clefts of the lip and palate, and a prerequisite of this aim is to elucidate causes of the disorders. Technological advances and international collaborations have yielded some successes (2). Objective: To study the epidemiology, evaluate prevention protocols of Cleft lip and palate. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted for infants from Sohag University hospitals from September 2015 to December 2016. All recruited infants after clinical evaluation and investigation to ensure the diagnosis, were interviewed assessing socio-demographic conditions, risk factors then data are statistically analysed. Results: In our study including 750 cleft lip and palate infants and 750 non cleft lip and palate, the estimated incidence of cleft lip and palate was 6.76/1000 living births. Significant risk factors were identified: age of the mother 15:50 years at conception 0.001, smoking (13.5%), fever (1.3%), exposure to pollutants, irradiation (1.3%) and (13.3%) respectively. Consanguinity was present in 36.4%, family history was detected in 10.4%, drugs intake in 23.7% (Table 1). The incidence of neonatal jaundice (13.9%), only (51.7%) of patients not need antenatal care, normal development (91.2%), delayed (8.8%) breast feeding (26.9%), bottle feeding (41.9%) (Table 2). Surgical interventions were the keystone in management of all cases of cleft with other multidisciplinary team as speech therapy, auditory and dental care and psychological support. Conclusions: Important risk factors have been identified, strongly associated with the incidence of congenital cleft lip and palate in infants. Improvement antenatal care, socio-demographic conditions and adopted fortification of the staple food are needed to our locality.

Keywords: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Cleft Lip and Palate.