Incidence of orofacial cleft in the University of Chile Maternity Hospitaland other hospitals participating in the Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC)

Background: ECLAMC is a registry, aimed to assess the incidence of congenit al malformations, that started in 1967 and Chile incorporated to it in 1969 . Aim: To report the incidence of clef lip/palate, updated to 1999 in the U niversity of Chile Maternity Hospital and other Chilean hospitals participa ting in the ECLAMC. Patients and methods: A review of the ECLAMC database t hat registers all births or stillbirths or more than 500 g. Results: The in cidence of orofacial clef, at the University of Chile Maternity Hospital, i n the period 1991-1999 was 17.8 per 1000 (12.6 for cleft lip and 5.2 for cl eft palate). The incidence in the rest of participating hospitals was 12.04 and 4.6 respectively. Males had a higher incidence of cleft lip and 80% of children with cleft palate, had other malformations, most of them as part of a syndrome (13 and 18 trisomy, holoproscencephalia, Pierre Robin, Apert en EE syndromes, anencephaly etc). In three of 12 children with cleft lip b ut without cleft palate, there was a relative with the same malformations. Conclusions: It is proposed that both entities, cleft lip with or without c left palate and cleft palate without cleft lip, are two etiopathogenically different conditions.