Spina Bifida/ Cleft Palate

spinabifida and clef lipin pallet are similar conditions that they both involve a failure of certain tissues to fuse during embryotic development in this short video we hope to educate you on how each disorder begins and how it may manifest itself we will begin with cleft lip and Palette both of these defects happen very early on in

embryotic development in this photo we can see the early formation of the face between 5 and 12 12 weeks gestation the sections that make up the face come together if we look at this color-coded illustration we can see they fit together almost like a puzzle if there's any lack of tissue or any failure of these tissues to fuse

a cleft can happen resulting in a cleft lip cleft lip can manifest itself in a number of different ways it can either be complete going right into the nose or incomplete just involving the lip and it can be unilateral or bilateral the prognosis for children born with cleft lip are usually pretty good involving a little bit of cosmetic

surgery and probably some orthodontic work later in life it becomes a little bit more complicated when the pallet is involved let's take a look at pallet formation in utero around 8 to 10 weeks gestation the hard pallet begins to form the primary pallette and the two secondary petal shelves make their migration to the

center again if there is any disruption of this a space or CL CFT can develop as would be expected a child with a cleft in the pallet would need more after care usually the first surgery would be around 6 to 12 months with the purpose being to create a functional pallet keep in mind children born with a

cleff pette are usually born with a cleff lip as well usually these two birth effects go hand in hand now we will discuss spinabifida another failure of tissues diffuse in utero this time being the neural tube this happens even earlier in gestation at only 20 to 28 days sometimes before a woman even knows she is