The First Hybrid International Educational Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the first hybrid global simulation-based comprehensive cleft care workshop, evaluate impact on participants, and compare experiences based on in-person versus virtual attendance. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey-based evaluation. SETTING: International comprehensive cleft care workshop. PARTICIPANTS: Total of 489 participants. INTERVENTIONS: Three-day simulation-based hybrid comprehensive cleft care workshop. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participant demographic data, perceived barriers and interventions needed for global comprehensive cleft care delivery, participant workshop satisfaction, and perceived short-term impact on practice stratified by in-person versus virtual attendance. RESULTS: The workshop included 489 participants from 5 continents. The response rate was 39.9%. Participants perceived financial factors (30.3%) the most significant barrier and improvement in training (39.8%) as the most important intervention to overcome barriers facing cleft care delivery in low to middle-income countries. All participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the workshop and a strong positive perceived short-term impact on their practice. Importantly, while this was true for both in-person and virtual attendees, in-person attendees reported a significantly higher satisfaction with the workshop (28.63 ± 3.08 vs 27.63 ± 3.93; P = .04) and perceived impact on their clinical practice (22.37 ± 3.42 vs 21.02 ± 3.45 P = .01). CONCLUSION: Hybrid simulation-based educational comprehensive cleft care workshops are overall well received by participants and have a positive perceived impact on their clinical practices. In-person attendance is associated with significantly higher satisfaction and perceived impact on practice. Considering that financial and health constraints may limit live meeting attendance, future efforts will focus on making in-person and virtual attendance more comparable.

Human levator veli palatini muscle: a novel source of mesenchymal stromal cells for use in the rehabilitation of patients with congenital craniofacial malformations.

BACKGROUND: Bone reconstruction in congenital craniofacial differences, which affect about 2-3% of newborns, has long been the focus of intensive research in the field of bone tissue engineering. The possibility of using mesenchymal stromal cells in regenerative medicine protocols has opened a new field of investigation aimed at finding optimal sources of multipotent cells that can be isolated via non-invasive procedures. In this study, we analyzed whether levator veli palatini muscle fragments, which can be readily obtained in non-invasive manner during palatoplasty in cleft palate patients, represent a novel source of MSCs with osteogenic potential. METHODS: We obtained levator veli palatini muscle fragments (3-5 mm3), during surgical repair of cleft palate in 5 unrelated patients. Mesenchymal stromal cells were isolated from the muscle using a pre-plating technique and other standard practices. The multipotent nature of the isolated stromal cells was demonstrated via flow cytometry analysis and by induction along osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation pathways. To demonstrate the osteogenic potential of these cells in vivo, they were used to reconstruct a critical-sized full-thickness calvarial defect model in immunocompetent rats. RESULTS: Flow cytometry analysis showed that the isolated stromal cells were positive for mesenchymal stem cell antigens (CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90, and CD105) and negative for hematopoietic (CD34 and CD45) or endothelial cell markers (CD31). The cells successfully underwent osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic cell differentiation under appropriate cell culture conditions. Calvarial defects treated with CellCeram™ scaffolds seeded with the isolated levator veli palatini muscle cells showed greater bone healing compared to defects treated with acellular scaffolds. CONCLUSION: Cells derived from levator veli palatini muscle have phenotypic characteristics similar to other mesenchymal stromal cells, both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings suggest that these cells may have clinical relevance in the surgical rehabilitation of patients with cleft palate and other craniofacial anomalies characterized by significant bone deficit.

Fat grafts supplemented with adipose-derived stromal cells in the rehabilitation of patients with craniofacial microsomia.

BACKGROUND: Although first reports of the clinical use of adipose-derived stromal cells suggest that this approach may be feasible and effective for soft-tissue augmentation, there is a lack of randomized, controlled clinical trials in the literature. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether a faster protocol for isolation of adipose-derived stromal cells and their use in combination with fat tissue improve the long-term retention of the grafts in patients with craniofacial microsomia. METHODS: Patients with craniofacial microsomia (n = 14) were grafted either with supplementation of adipose-derived stromal cells (experimental group) or without supplementation of adipose-derived stromal cells (control group). The number of viable cells isolated before and after the supplementation of the grafts was calculated, and these cells were examined for mesenchymal cell surface markers using flow cytometry. Computed tomography was performed to assess both hemifaces preoperatively and at 6 months postoperatively. RESULTS: The average number of viable cells isolated before and after the supplementation of the grafts was 5.6 × 10 and 9.9 × 10 cells/ml of fat tissue (p = 0.015). Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the adipose-derived stromal cells were positive for mesenchymal cell markers (>95 percent for CD73 and CD105). Surviving fat volume at 6 months was 88 percent for the experimental group and 54 percent for the control group (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that this strategy for isolation and supplementation of adipose-derived stromal cells is effective, safe, and superior to conventional lipoinjection for facial recontouring in patients with craniofacial microsomia. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, II.