Treatment Modalities to Achieve Nasal Symmetry in Unilateral Cleft Lip/Nasal Deformity: An Objective and Comparative Evaluation.

Introduction: Primary cleft lip repair techniques do not address the nasal deformity adequately resulting in nasal asymmetry. Maneuvers employed to minimize this have varying degrees of success. Aim: To assess the outcome of different treatment modalities employed to establish nasal symmetry in unilateral cleft lip. Methods: 100 patients with complete unilateral cleft lip/ palate operated for primary cheiloplasty with modified Millard's rotation advancement technique were divided into five groups. Group 1: lip repair alone, Group 2: NAM followed by lip repair, Group 3: lip repair followed by placement of conformers, Group 4: NAM followed by lip repair and placement of conformers, Group 5: lip repair with semi-open rhinoplasty. Objective assessment was done using measurable parameters after 12 months post-operatively on a 1:1 standard photograph. Results: Group 5 showed statistical significance in all parameters assessed. Progressive improvement in nasal symmetry was noted from Group 1 to Group V. Conclusion: In our study, group V, i.e., modified Millard's repair with semi-open rhinoplasty improved the results in terms of all the objective parameters assessed. The results of the other groups showed improvement though not consistent in all parameters. Naso-alveolar molding is an effective adjunct. Additionally, nasal conformers proved to be of great value in retaining the results obtained post-surgery.

Scientometric analysis of medical publications during COVID-19 pandemic: the twenty-twenty research boom.

INTRODUCTION: There was significant surge in the academic publications after the onset of COVID-19 outbreak. The aim of this study was to scientometrically analyze all the medical publications on COVID-19 in 2020 as well as the top 100 cited articles. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We performed a search of the "Web of Science" database using the keywords "COVID," and "corona" on December 20, 2020. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Our search retrieved a total of 45,420 articles on the topic COVID-19 in the year 2020. Corresponding authors from 143 countries contributed to these articles. The highest number of articles were contributed by corresponding authors from the USA (N.=10299), whereas 50 articles in the top 100 cited articles had corresponding authors from China. Among the top 100 cited, the majority were published from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China (N.=37). New England Journal of Medicine had the maximum impact (h-index of 57), closely followed by Lancet (h-index=55). CONCLUSIONS: Scientific publications amount on COVID-19 disease grew at an astonishing pace during 2020. We caution the readers that this rapidity of publication could have missed out on the rigorous review process and the scientific basis of the methods followed.