Management of cleft lip and palate

Abstract

The complex nature of treatment for CL/P, a condition that requires a large multidisciplinary team treating patients from birth to maturity, has been outlined. Subjecting centres' outcomes to audit should precede heeding the current siren calls for paediatricians to refer children exclusively to a particular surgical speciality. A growing body of evidence has shown a close correlation between quality of outcome and the availability of high volume centralised care by dedicated teams, as has been proved and accepted for years in other fields such as surgery in infancy, childhood malignancies, and cystic fibrosis.