Changing Trends in Cleft Lip and Palate Management Taught in Training Programs in Korea

To assess changes in trends of cleft management and achieve an overview of the current status, a replication of 2000 national survey was conducted. Questionnaires containing 46 categories were distributed to 72 senior residents of all Korean institutes with plastic surgery training programs. Forty-two of the questionnaires were returned in completed form. The results were (1) new surgeries numbering less than 10 per year were reported by 50% for the cleft lip and by 45% for the cleft palate; (2) 61% were using presurgical orthopedics before the repair of the cleft, and most common method was presurgical nasal-alveolar molding (43%); (3) the rotation advancement technique (94%) was the most popular method for the unilateral cleft lip repair and the Millard method (54%) for the bilateral cleft lip repair; (5) the double-opposing Z-plasty was the most common method for the repair of the complete (56%) and the incomplete cleft palate (80%); (6) 85% of the respondents reported performed the alveolar cleft repair during the period of mixed dentition, and the gingival mucoperiosteal flap and bone graft method was the most favored methods (92%); (7) the multidisciplinary team approach was practiced by 36%. Although the current result cannot be regarded as a significant advance in cleft management, the overall cleft services in Korea were getting standardized and shown to be turning to more efficient structure.