Abstract
Clinico-statistical investigation was made in 356 families with cleft lip and/or clft palate who had undergone a primay operation at the Department of Oral Surgery, Osaka Roosai Hospital.
The incidence of these diseases at the Department of Obstetrics in this hospital was 0.23%,1: 425.
As for the ages of mothers at birth, mothers aged under 30 were found in 81.7% of the total and those aged above 31, in 18.3%, of which 13 cases were delivered at the age of above 36.
As to the age difference of parents,2-year difference stood first followed by 1-year, next 3-year, and then 4-year differences, but no significant difference were found among them. The first and second children were dominant in the birth rank, and the number decreased from the third children onward.
Associated congenital anomalies were in 21.0% of the total, of which Pierre-Robin syndrome and Strabismus occured frequently. Such a high incidence as 36.4% was recorded as to complication in cleft palate.
Consanguineous marriages were found in 1.4% of the affected families, a lower value than in the normal population.
Familial occurrence was found in 38 of 356 families (10.7%), and there were 9 families of cousin-affection and 8 families of one parent-affection. As to cases with cleft lip, there was each one family of affected parents and siblings; one parent, sibling and uncle, and of affected cousin and uncle.
In normal parents cleft lip occurred in 0.6% of the siblings; cleft lip and palate, in 3.4%; and cleft palate, in 2.5%. Thus, the occurrence in siblings was found in 8 cases of the 376 siblings (2.1%).
There were 2 families of affected father and 7 families of affected mother. Out of such one parent-affected families, there was a family (mother, uncle and sister were affected) in which another occurrence was found (in a younger brother), such as not reported hitherto.
Noreport has been found on parents-affected families so far in Japan. A rare cases of such a family was stated in this report in which all of siblings were affected. Namely, father and siblings (a brother and two sisters) ans all bilateral cleft lip and alveolus, although the mother suffered from left incomplete cleft lip.
There were 6 pairs of twin, all of which were discordant.
