NEONATAL SURGERY OF THE CLEFT LIP AND PALATE
by S N Desai (Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK)
Traditionally, cleft lip repair has been carried out around 10 to 12 weeks of age. There have been surgeons who have done surgery in newborn but there has been no series where cleft lip repair has been carried out in the first 48 hours as a routine procedure over a long period with long term results. The author's unit has performed this operation routinely for the past 25 years and collected data on the speech, hearing, growth and appearance of the children, who are now in their 20s. The main argument against this procedure was the anaesthetic risk in performing surgery so early in life. Having analysed all the arguments for and against, the author provides a detailed analysis of the work in this book. As far as is known, this is the only book to analyse the long-term results of surgery in newborn. A number of centres around the world are contemplating or performing sugery in newborn and this would be a very good background for emphasising and promoting the operation.
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