[Prevalence of cleft palate and cleft lip among 20000 Iranian neonates]

Cleft lip [CL], cleft palate [CP] and their combination [CLP] and are the most common congenital head and neck anomalies. However, there is no certain study in this regards in our country. We performed an epidemiologic study to analyze the association of potential risk factors with the occurrence of oral clefts. This descriptive study was performed applying of existing data. Medical records of 20000 consecutive live born neonates delivered between April 2000 and June 2005 in Mahdie hospital, were reviewed and prevalence rate and probable maternal risk factors for these anomalies were calculated. Prevalence rate of oral clefts was 0.6/1000. Moreover, we found a prevalence rate of 0.15/1000 for CL, 0.25/1000 for CLP and 0.2/1000 for CP, respectively. These results indicated that the prevalence of oral clefts among neonates in Tehran city is so close to that of negroid newborns. Compared with previous reports in Iran, the obvious decrease in prevalence of oral clefts in our study may correspond that the mothers' anxiety is a major risk factor in development of oral cleft in newborns