A Comparative Study of the Surgical Outcome of Internationally Adopted versus Swedish Born Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

Abstract

Abstract Degree Project thesis, Programme in Medicine Title: A Comparative Study of the Surgical Outcome of Internationally Adopted versus Swedish Born Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate Author: Kjeld Gravgaard Department of Plastic Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2015 Background At Sahlgrenska University Hospital, internationally adopted patients with a cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) are treated by a cleft team at the Department of Plastic Surgery. Earlier studies and clinical experience indicate a higher number of surgical complications compared to non-adopted children. Aim To show demographic and surgical statistics on adopted children with CL/P, and investigate the surgical outcome in internationally adopted patients compared to non-adopted patients. Patients and Methods Medical records of 158 adopted patients receiving surgical treatment at Sahlgrenska University Hospital were analyzed. Twenty-seven of these were selected according to diagnosis and type of surgical treatment and compared to a non-adopted control group, of 68 patients. Four parameters were compared: Bleeding and operation time during bone grafting surgery, as well as number of surgical procedures and number of palato-pharyngeal flap procedures at 10 years of age. The data was analyzed using SPSS, and the non-parametrical Mann-Whitney U test. Results The majority of patients had been adopted from China, and the majority of adopted patients had unilateral cleft lip and palate. There was a statistically significant higher number of palato-pharyngeal flap procedures in the adopted group compared to the control group (P=0,001). There were no statistically significant differences in bleeding, operation time and total number of surgical procedures between the groups. Conclusions Adopted CL/P-patients require significantly more speech improvement surgery compared to non-adopted CL/P-patients.