Day Care Surgery for Unilateral Alveolar Bone Grafting of Residual Clefts With Mandibular Symphyseal Bone—A Prospective Questionnaire Study

Objective: To evaluate patients’ experiences of shortened hospitalization in relation to bone grafting of unilateral alveolar clefts with mandibular symphyseal bone grafts. Design: Prospective cohort questionnaire study. Setting: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Patients: Thirty-nine (male n = 26, female n = 13) patients with unilateral residual clefts after primary reconstruction, mean age 10.4 years. Interventions: All patients underwent a standardized procedure with closure of the alveolar defect using mandibular symphyseal bone grafts. Patients were discharged within a day after surgery. Within 24 hours after discharge from surgery, patients and their parents filled in a 14-item psychometric questionnaire assessing the quality of their recovery. For all questions, a visual analogue scale (VAS) (0-10) was used. Main Outcome Measure: Patients’ experience of shortened hospitalization in relation to secondary bone grafting of alveolar defects. Factors influencing the overall experience were measured using a VAS scale. Results: A significant correlation between “Information from the hospital” and feeling worried and anxious was found (P = .04). Additionally, the ability to sleep correlated with pain (P = .003) and with nausea (P = .001). Conclusions: Although this study included a limited number of patients, the findings suggest that treatment of alveolar residual cleft with bone grafting from the mandibular symphyseal region in a day care surgery setting is characterized by very high patient satisfaction.