Characterization of the nasal, sublingual, and oropharyngeal mucosa microbiota in cleft lip and palate individuals before and after surgical repair.

Objective: To delineate inherent differences in the microbial milieu in cleft palate patients compared with cleft lip patients and to document changes in microbial flora before and after cleft lip and palate repair.

Design: A prospective study of preoperative and postoperative culture results from the nasal, sublingual, and oropharyngeal surfaces of patients undergoing primary cleft lip repair and palate closure.

Setting: Shriners Hospitals for Children, Galveston, Texas, and University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.

Patients: Seventy-nine patients were included in a 3-year period. Ten patients with isolated cleft lip underwent primary lip repair. Twenty-five patients with cleft lip and palate underwent primary lip repair, and 44 patients underwent palatoplasty.

Results: Cleft palate patients had a significantly higher rate of colonization by staphylococcal species, but not methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , when compared to cleft lip patients (p=.0298; chi-square test). Closure of the palatal cleft coincided with significant decline in the prevalence of Klebsiella and Enterobacter species (p<.05; McNemar test). The only major complication, palatal dehiscence, was believed to be directly related to infection with group A beta-hemolytic streptococci.

Conclusions: Despite a high prevalence of potential pathogenic and enteric flora preoperatively in primary palate repair, postoperative wound infection is rare in the prospective study population. However, the presence of beta-hemolytic streptococci was associated with a higher risk of repair dehiscence; therefore, screening for Streptococci prior to surgery should be performed routinely.