The change in the appearance of the vermilion border region caused by the difference of the design in symmetric bilateral incomplete cleft lip repair

Abstract

In the widely performed methods for repair of bilateral cleft lips, such as Mulliken and Trott methods, the formation of the median tubercle is done with the mucocutaneous flaps from the lateral lips. By this manoeuver, a visible horizontal scar just above the white skin roll of the philtral region tends to result, especially among Asian patients. To avoid the formation of this visible scar, we changed our design in such a way that mucosal flaps, instead of mucocutaneous flaps, are elevated from the lateral lips, and the prolabial white skin roll is preserved to become the final philtral white skin roll. By this change in design, the horizontal scar is shifted to the inferior edge of the vermilion border. In the past 8 years, we have performed this refined method along with the conventional one. In the present study, the five cases of symmetric bilateral incomplete cleft lip from each of the two groups are evaluated: one group with the mucocutaneous flaps and the other with the mucosal flaps. From the review of the cases, it was noted that when the philtral region is formed with the mucocutaneous flaps, the horizontal scar tends to be visible. On the other hand, when it is formed with the mucosal flaps, the scar is less conspicuous, although the white skin roll sometimes becomes less-defined. The refined method involving mucosal flaps from the lateral lips produces a better-accepted appearance concerning the prolabial horizontal scar in the symmetric bilateral incomplete cleft lip repair.