Labio-palatine Cleft, Morphological Substrate

Labio-palatin clefts are the most common type of craniofacial malformation encountered in practice and among the most common congenital abnormalities; it represent morphological and functional defects in newborns caused by genetically changes or environmental factors; those of the cervico-facial region have an increased incidence due to local embryological complexity and multifactorial etiology. The anomaly, with its variants, results from an inherent defect between the internal and external nasal buds, both from the frontal and upper maxillary bud. Labio-palatine clefts are characterized by a tissue deficiency as well as an abnormal disposition of the present tissues. It is believed that the labial clefts are consecutive to the lack of apoptosis of the ectoderm which envelops the internal maxillary and nasal buds, thus constituting a barrier to the fusion process of buds. Depending on the location and the extentension of the cleft, the labial cleft occurs, or the more frequent, the labial-alveolar cleft. The study group consisted of 22 patients with labio-palatine clefts, of which 16 boys (72.72%) and 6 girls (27.27%), who presented in the clinic for treatment. When the causative factor acts earlier, the clfet develops posteriorly, since mesodermization begins from the posterior to the anterior. The more disturbing factor acts, the greater the cleft. The increase in the incidence of labial-palatine cleft is believed to be mainly due to the increase in the number of women of older gestational age in women; women over 35 years of age have a double risk of having children with labio-palatine clefts, the risk being three times higher for mothers over the 39 years.