Vasilenko V. Clinical and morphological features of congenital unilateral clefts of the upper lip and their influence on the results of primary cheiloplasty in children.

The thesis deals with one of the pressing problems of oral surgery, i.e. improving results of surgical treatment of children of various age groups with congenital unilateral clefts of the upper lip depending upon morphologic characteristic of the tissues of the cleft margins. The work is based upon the results of investigation and treatment of 162 children with unilateral clefts of the upper lip. To describe clinic of congenital unilateral clefts of the upper lip, a work pattern based on the principle of complex examination of the 4 parameters characterizing any type of the cleft has been developed. To detect optimum conditions for primary cheiloplasty, morpho-histochemical investigation of the tissues of the cleft margins in children of various age groups raging from 3 d.o. up to 1 y.o. and older (up to 3 y.o.) has been performed. The clinical and morphologic investigations have showed the results of the treatment to depend primarily on severity of unilateral clefts of the upper lip. Age-related morphologic features of the tissues of the cleft margins have been proved to greatly influence the quality of the restored lip. Clinical and morphologic grounding of determined terms of cheiloplasty in children with congenital unilateral clefts of the upper lip based upon specific morphology of the histological structure of the cleft margins has been elaborated and introduced, the causes of development of post-surgery complications have been specified, thus allowing to improve the results of the treatment.