Cleft-Related Infanticide and Abandonment: A Systematic Review of the Academic and Lay Literature.

Objective: We aimed to describe the scope of cleft-related infanticide and identify issues that might inform prevention strategies.

Design: Systematic reviews of both academic (eg, PubMed, EBSCOhost) and lay literature (eg, LexisNexis Academic, Google) databases were performed to identify all primary reports of cleft-related infanticide. All languages were included.

Estimate of Unmet Need for Cleft Lip and/or Palate Surgery in India.

Importance: The unmet need for cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) care in India is significant. However, estimates required for CL/P care program planning are lacking.

Objective: To estimate the unmet need for CL/P surgery in India at the state level.

A Health Systems Perspective on the Mission Model for Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery: A Matter of Sustainability or Responsibility?

One in 700 children around the world are born with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P). Although reconstructive surgery is widely available in high-income settings, over 2 billion people in low- and middle-income countries lack access to essential surgical care. The mission model has been demonstrated to be highly effective in responding to the global surgical workforce crisis, but has been questioned in regard to its sustainability, value, and overall impact.

Elevated infant mortality rates among oral cleft and isolated oral cleft cases: a meta-analysis of studies from 1943 to 2010.

Objective : To review available published literature in order to obtain a more comprehensive assessment of the association between infant mortality and oral clefts, overall and isolated. Design : A wide-ranging search of published studies relating infant mortality rates to oral clefts and congenital malformations was conducted, yielding applicable data sets. Settings of the included studies varied to a limited extent, although all were conducted within high-income countries with superior health indicators.

Cleft lip and palate as a cost-effective health care treatment in the developing world.

Background: The considerable number of surgical procedures performed each year, as well as the significant burden of surgical disease globally, have brought surgery into the arena of public health concerns. Several articles have shown the cost-effectiveness of surgical interventions in the developing world. The authors suggest that surgery has an important role in global public health, specifically through international volunteer surgical missions as a vehicle for delivery.