The degree of deviation of palatal shape from the norm may reflect facial growth disturbance in cleft lip and palate (CLP). The objective of this study was to compare the palatal morphology in children treated with different surgical protocols. Palatal shape was assessed with geometric morphometrics (GM) including Procrustes superimposition, principal component analysis (PCA), and permutation tests with 10,000 permutations, in 24 children treated with two-stage repair with a late palatoplasty (Prague group; mean age at assessment 8.9 years), 16 children after two-stage repair with early palatoplasty (Bratislava group; mean age 8.2 years), and 53 children treated with a one-stage repair (Warsaw group, mean age 10.3 years). The non-cleft control group comprised 60 children at 8.6 years. The first five principal components (PCs) accounted for a minimum of 5% of the total shape variability (65.9% in total). The Procrustes distance was largest for the Prague vs. Control pair and smallest for the Prague vs. Bratislava pair. Nonetheless, all intergroup differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). One can conclude that variations in palatal shape roughly correspond to cephalometric and dental arch relationship findings from prior research. Among the children who underwent a one-stage repair of the complete cleft, their palatal morphology most closely resembled that of the non-cleft controls. Conversely, children who received late palatoplasty exhibited the greatest degree of deviation.

Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics University of Bern 3012 Bern Switzerland

Department of Orthodontics Jagiellonian University Cracow 31 155 Krakow Poland

Department of Pediatric Surgery Institute of Mother and Child 01 211 Warsaw Poland

Department of Stomatology 3rd Faculty of Medicine Charles University and Kralovske Vinohrady University Hospital 10034 Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University 323 00 Pilsen Czech Republic

Institute of Dentistry and Oral Sciences Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Palacký University Olomouc 77900 Olomouc Czech Republic

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