Accurate diagnosis of prenatal cleft lip/palate by understanding the embryology

Figure 1 Development of the lip.

Figure 2 Caudal view of the fusion process of the palatal shelves.

Figure 3 Different types of cleft lips. A: Unilateral microform cleft lip; B: Unilateral cleft lip and alveolus; C: Unilateral cleft lip and palate; D: Bilateral cleft lip and palate with protrusion of the intermaxillary process; E: Lateral view of bilateral cleft lip and palate.

Figure 4 Prenatal, postnatal and post-surgery images of three different patients with cleft lip and alveolus, cleft lip and palate and bilateral cleft lip and palate respectively.

Figure 5 Echo pattern of a normal uvula visualized by ultrasound is typical and strongly resembles an “equals sign”.

Figure 6 Kernahan’s classification. The area affected by the cleft is labeled from 1-9, each of which represents a different anatomical structure: 1: Right lip; 2: Right alveolus; 3: Right premaxilla; 4: Left lip; 5: Left alveolus; 6: Left premaxilla; 7: Hard palate; 8: Soft palate; 9: Submucous cleft.