Frequency of cleft lip and cleft palate in Pakistan.

Objective: To find out the prevalence of patients with cleft lips and/or cleft palate and their association with risk factors. Study Design: Descriptive Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Plastic Surgery Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Center, Karachi. Period: March 2020 to October 2021. Material & Methods: The patients with any age group or gender, who had cleft lip and/or palate were included in the study. The demographic details, personal and family history and clinical examination of the patients were noted on a preformed proforma. The data was analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The mean age and standard deviation of the study participants was 41 ± 54 months. Male gender was predominant. History of cousin marriages were positive among 92.1% of the cases and 11.1% were having positive family history with p-value ≤0.05. Majority of cases were having both deformities including cleft lip and cleft palate with frequency of 55.2% while 30.2% of the individuals were suffering from cleft lip deformity. The affected cases of cleft palate were 14.6%. Majority of the study participants were male which predominantly reported bilateral cleft lip in association with cleft palate, followed by deformity of left cleft lip and palate. Among females the cleft palate deformity was more common (10.4%) than their male counterpart but there was no significant association with gender. Conclusion: Cleft deformities are one of the most common congenital anomaly in which the cleft lip associated with cleft palate is more prevalent. Majority of the affected individuals are males and mostly their parents have cousin marriages. Family history is also one of the major contributing factor.