Median Cleft of the Lower Lip and Mandible: A Case Report

Cha, Doo Won; Kim, Hyun Soo; Baek, Sang Heum; Kim, Chin Soo; Byeon, Ki Jeong

Abstract

Median cleft of the lower lip and/or mandible is a rare congenital anomaly, first mentioned by Couronne in 1819. Monroe (1966), Fujino (1970), Ranta (1984) and Oostrom (1996) conducted comprehensive reviews and list cases in literature. Median cleft varies greatly, from a simple vermilion notch to a complete cleft of the lip involving the tongue, the chin, the mandible, the supporting structures of the median of the neck, and the manubrium sterni. The associated anomalies include ankyloglossia, cleft tongue, neck contraction, heart lesion, absence of hyoid bone, and so on. The etiology of median cleft is unknown. Various possibilities, such as failure of mesodermal penetration into the midline, failure of fusion of mandibular processes, external factors apart from the embryogenic pattern such as pressure, position in utero, circulatory failure caused placental adhesion, diseases in pregnancy, and so on, have been discussed. A 8-year-old girl was referred to the Dept. of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital and had been aware of the fact that at birth "she had something wrong with her mouth." Shortly after birth she had been examined by a plastic surgeon and at that time surgical procedure had been performed to release the tongue from the lower jaw and lip at local hospital. On admission, she had a slight notching of lower lip and two fibrous frenum ran from the lip along the ventral surface of the tongue, diastema between her mandibular central incisors, and slightly constricted bifid mandible associated independent movement of the two halves of mandible. The patient had autogenous iliac bone graft to reconstruct the mandibular midline defect. The postoperative result was uneventful. In future, the correction of the soft tissue deformities such as notching of the lower lip and partial ankyloglossia will be required for the esthetic and functional improvement.