Radiologic Evaluation of the Influence of Cleft Type on Nasal Dorsum Growth

Abstract

PurposeThe study was designed to evaluate whether intrinsic morphological characteristics of the nasal dorsum are affected by cleft type, specifically cleft lip only (CL) and cleft lip with cleft palate(CL/P).\n\nMethods576 cleft patients (278 CL only, 298 CL/P), and 333 individuals without orofacial clefts were retrospectively enrolled. Lateral cephalometric radiographs of all individuals were taken to evaluate the nasal length and nasal dorsum height. Dunns test was used to analyze the difference (p 0.05). In CL, the total dorsal length is significantly shorter (5y-18y, p0.05), although it is shorter during 8y to 16y (p<0.05). The upper nasal dorsum is overdeveloped (14y-18y, p<0.05), whereas the lower nasal dorsum is underdeveloped (5y-18y, p<0.001).\n\nConclusionCL inhibits the growth of nasal dorsum length, leading to short nose deformity. CL/P patients are prone to saddle-nose deformity because of the diminished nasal height (decreased nasal angle).