Septal aplasia with unilateral cleft lip and palate: A new entity or a variation of the binderoid cleft?

Abstract

Congenital septal abnormalities are rare. Septal agenesis in isolation has been described in the literature with scant reports of similar septal anomalies, all of which have presented in adulthood with a request for reconstruction. Mulliken described a rare subset of children with cleft lip and palate associated with nasolabiomaxillary hypoplasia. Although some of these cases were similar to ours, none of the described cases were associated with septal aplasia. We report two cases of septal aplasia in combination with a right unilateral cleft of the lip and palate in two babies < 1 year of age. We discuss insights learned for primary repair of the lip and palate in these patients and include preoperative photographs.

Keywords

• binderoid cleft
• cleft lip and palate
• congenital septal abnormality
• septal aplasia
• septal hypoplasia