Evaluation of a HA Dermal Filler in the Treatment of Lip Deformity

Early postnatal repair of cleft lip and palate aims at the development of the child through reconstruction of the face soon after birth. Cleft lip is the result of a defect in the fusion of the buds of the face by default of cell apoptosis of the embryonic neural crest constituting the skin and the labial mucosa. Lip surgery or cheiloplasty primary of unilateral and bilateral cleft lip and palate is carried out from the age of 6 weeks. At the end of the surgical treatment, we often observe small unsightly residual volumetric asymmetries. The choice is then either to surgically reduce a muscular part too voluminous by reducing locally the volume of the lip, or to increase the volume of the thinnest portion this second solution is made possible either by injecting fat or by injection of hyaluronic acid. By adulthood, patients with cleft lip have often undergone 10 or more defect-related surgeries and many desire less invasive options to improve any residual cosmetic imperfections. The first use of a temporary alloplastic injectable soft tissue filler, hyaluronic acid (HA), for upper lip augmentation in a patient with asymmetry after surgical cleft lip repair was reported in 2008. There are few publications on the use hyaluronic acid in complement to the surgical treatment of cleft lip and palate, but all reported promising results.