A clinical and demographic profile of the cleft lip and palate in Sub-Himalayan India: A hospital-based study

OBJECTIVES: To study the cleft lip and cleft palate in the poverty stricken Sub-Himalayan Garhwal region of India, being a commonly seen congenital abnormality and scarcity of studies about the demography of cleft in this region. DESIGN: A prospective cohort observational case series was performed on 4657 cleft patients at a Tertiary care Hospital in Dehradun, India, over a period of 5 years. OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors investigated the differences between age and sex with cleft status and family history of clefts, birth order, religion, socioeconomic status, parent literacy, source of information for treatment, haematological investigations showing the status of infection and coagulation in such children and satisfaction after treatment. RESULTS: Seventy-two percent parents of cleft lip patients were illiterate, and only 8% were graduates, the majority of patients were from the low socioeconomic class. The siblings of 1.1% of the cleft patients had similar deformity. Anemia was seen in 83.16% cases which was commonly microcytic hypochromic type and eosinophilia was seen in 25.50% of cases. In the coagulation profile, International Nationalized Ratio was found to be raised in 52.12%. Almost 95% of the families were fully satisfied by the treatment and results. CONCLUSION: This study will provide baseline information on the status of these less privileged cleft patients in this mountainous region for future reference to health workers.