Presurgical techniques for the treatment of cleft lip and palate in infants – a review of the literature

Patients with cleft lip and palate require long-term, multistage and multidisciplinary treatment whose first step is presurgical orthopaedic treatment (PSO). The reconstruction of the lip, alveolar process and nose in these patients are major plastic surgery challenges. Various presurgical procedures are undertaken to achieve optimal surgical outcomes. The aim of this article is to present selected techniques for the presurgical cleft lip and palate treatment in infants and critically evaluate the benefits, limitations and drawbacks of the methods used. The research was based on the literature review using keywords: presurgical treatment of cleft lip and palate in infants, presurgical orthopaedics in the treatment of cleft lip and palate in infants in PubMed, Google Scholar databases, and publications in orthodontics and infant orthopaedics out of these databases. PSO is a minimally invasive therapy performed between birth and first surgery. Anatomical and functional cleft palate disorders constitute indications for PSO. There are positive reports on PSO techniques and some of them can be implemented by the child’s caregivers at home. The authors of studies disagree on the PSO effectiveness. The lack of long-term research results, high costs of therapy and few therapy centres negatively influence the decision to undertake the therapy.