A Scoping Review of Adjuvant Perioperative Therapies for Primary Cleft Lip Repair

Background: To date, there is little guidance regarding current adjuvant therapies for primary surgical repair of cleft lip. There are studies on the effect of botulinum toxin type A, revision fat grafting, silicone gel and sheeting, intense pulsed light, and carbon dioxide lasers to ameliorate contracture and hypertrophic scar formation, but a comprehensive review of these options is lacking. The aim of this scoping review is to examine adjuvant techniques and therapies that modulate scar outcomes for primary cleft lip repair outcomes in the perioperative period. Methods: PROSPERO, PubMed/MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrial.gov were searched for studies that evaluated adjuvant therapies for primary cleft lip repair. Results: The initial search resulted in 688 studies, with 48 studies including relevant key terms in the title and abstract screening. After the full-text screening, 11 studies were included in the final scoping review. These included 3 studies about use of botulinum toxin injection, 2 studies about fat grafting, 2 studies about nasal stents, and 4 studies about various topical treatments. In the Jadad quality index evaluation and MINORS assessment of the methodological quality of the included papers, there was a strong level of agreement among the 2 raters respectively (weighted kappa = 1, kappa = 0.817, both P-value < .0001). Conclusion: From this scoping review, adjuvant therapies such as utilizing botulinum toxin and immediate fat grafting intraoperatively and nasal stents and topical treatments including antibiotic ointment, lidocaine, hydrogen peroxide, and silicone gels postoperatively are worthwhile to consider as a combination of adjuvant treatments to prevent adverse scar formation in patients undergoing primary cleft lip repair. The most robust evidence lies with botulinum toxin use.