Objective: To investigate the trend in cleft care at a major children's referral center in Bangkok, Thailand.
Study design: Retrospective chart review.
Patients and methods: A review of 129 patients under 18 years of age who had underwent care by the senior author for cleft treatment between January 2015 and October 2017 was done. The impact of varying factors on patient care was analyzed. We compare our demographics and treatment timeline to that of previously published literature in more developed countries.
Setting: Tertiary care medical center.
Results: One hundred and two patient charts were reviewed with 53% male patients. Most patients had both cleft lip and cleft palate, 44%. Cleft lips most commonly were complete and occurred on the left side. In all, 77.4% of clefts were nonsyndromic. On average, primary cleft lip surgery was delayed being performed about 11 months of age. Sixteen percent of patients were treated with an obturator, while 11 patients had nasoalveolar molding use. Hearing screenings occurred on average at around 6 months of age. Abnormal tympanograms were evident in 32% of individuals. There was a significant difference in timing of surgery for patients who lived a distance greater than 30 kilometers from the hospital versus those from the Bangkok metropolis (P < .05).
Conclusion: Reviewing data from a high-volume referral center in Thailand reveals mild variance with regard to cleft care timing compared to published literature from the developed world. Distance traveled was found to impact timing of surgery.
Keywords: cleft lip; cleft palate; global health.