Pattern of cleft lip and palate in Dar-es-Salaam.

Objectives: To analyse the pattern of cleft lip and palate patients managed at two hospitals in Dar-es-Salaam.

Design: A retrospective descriptive study.

Setting: Muhimbili National Hospital and Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation Tanzania Disability Hospital which are special referral centres where most of the cleft lip and palate patients in Dar-es-Salaam are managed.

Subjects: Two hundred and sixty nine patients were seen during the study period form January 2005 to December 2006.

Results: A total of 269 patients with oral facial clefts were seen during the two year period. Cleft lip combined with cleft palate was the commonest cleft disorder accounting for 44.5% of cases followed by isolated cleft lip (38.3%) and cleft palate only (16.3%). Male patients predominated for unilateral clefts and there was a slight preponderance of 1.7:1. The majority of patients presented at an age of less than five years (60.2%) with an average age of nine months. Late presentation is still common and mainly attributed to ignorance, lack of access to health care facilities and financial constraints.

Conclusion: The pattern of oral-facial clefts does not differ much from other parts of Africa and emphasis should be made to increase public awareness and improve health care facilities to manage these patients effectively.