Lengthening of the columella in primary repair of bilateral cleft lip and nose

This review is a report on a procedure of open tip rhinoplasty at the time of lip repair in bilateral cleft lip and palate deformity. It has always been thought that a wide and early nasal dissection could bear problems of growth retardation. The technique we propose does not seem to entail more severe trauma to the nasal cartilages than those created by the traditional techniques of closed rhioplasty. Our technique takes into consideration the need to preserve the median tubercle vermilion in order to achieve a better lip repair [Manchester1970 (1), Talmant 2002 (2)]. The procedure has been applied to bilateral cleft lip for a total of 20 patients. The first results obtained with this procedure seem to be far better than those achieved with closed rhinoplasty.