Is cleft lip and palate ever isolated? Phenotype is in the eye of the beholder.

摘要

THE PARENTS OF AN INFANT WITH CLEFT LIP and palate (CLP) often fear that their child may not be healthy in other ways. Although often unspoken, most families worry about the cognitive development of their child. There appears to be an innate human tendency to associate craniofacial malformations with abnormal cognitive development. Primary care providers and craniofacial teams examine and evaluate these children looking for signs of an underlying syndrome that might herald problems for the future. Finding nothing more than an "isolated" CLP, we as pediatric health care professionals are confident we can reassure families that the condition is treatable and that their child should be healthy in every other way. Those of us on large craniofacial teams have the opportunity to care for hundreds of children with CLP and have noted that the frequency of learning disabilities in this population appears to be higher than in the general pediatric population.