50th Free Surgery conducted at Cleft Lip & Palate Care Centre for Children at FMRI, Gurgaon

Specialists at Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI), Gurgaon conducted their 50th free surgery at the Cleft Lip and Palate Centre for Children by carrying out a successful cleft repair surgery on a six-month old infant, Akansh from Mewat, the southern-most district of Haryana. The Centre was launched at FMRI in collaboration with Fortis Foundation and Mission Smile) India in February 2015 to initiate a comprehensive Clinic for Cleft Lip, Palate and other facial deformities exclusively for children from the economically weaker sections of society.

Baby Akansh had a congenital deformity called cleft lip due to which there was opening in the upper lip that extended till his nose. This was associated with feeding difficulties which in turn hindered his physical growth. The parents reported to the hospital with the infant for the screening. At that time the child was too small to be operated. A regular follow up was planned and when the baby turned six months old the cleft repair surgery was conducted on Monday, May 16th by Dr Amitabh Singh.

A cleft is a gap or opening where the body structures that form before birth do not fuse as the normal body structure does. The deformity is caused by abnormal facial development during gestation. Babies with palatal clefts may have compromised hearing and therefore, if the baby cannot hear, it cannot try to mimic the sounds of speech. Thus, even before expressive language acquisition, the baby with a cleft palate is at risk for receptive language acquisition. Because the lips and palate are both used in pronunciation, individuals with cleft usually need the aid of a speech therapist. Clefts can also affect other parts of the face such as the eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, and forehead. The outcome of this nonfusion condition may pose problems with feeding, ear disease, speech and socialization. Individuals with cleft also face many middle ear infections which may eventually lead to hearing loss.

Specialist services at the Centre include Plastic/Maxillofacial Surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, speech therapists, ENT specialists, child life psychologists, and dental surgeon/orthodontists and 65 cases have been screened so far since inception. Patients who have undergone corrective surgeries range from babies as small as 3 months old to 27 year-old adults, 30 of these being male and 20 females. As regards cases, 24 were on cleft lip/lip deformity, 18 on cleft palate/palate fistula and 6 cases included both types of deformities. There were two rare cases on nasal deformity and burn contracture. Out of the total 50 cases, 36 were from Haryana, 12 were from UP and one each from Mathura and Kolkata.

For more information, please contact:

Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

Ajey Maharaj +91- 9871798573;
[email protected] 
Tanushree Roy Chowdhury:+91 9999425750
[email protected] 

Avian Media

Rishu Singh, +91-9958891501;
[email protected]
Preeti Sehrawat: +91- 9711170599;
[email protected] 

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