Prenatal diagnosis of cleft lip and palate.

A prospective study was conducted over a period of 8 years to compare the severity of the cleft lip and palate detected by ultrasound scanning of the foetus with the severity at birth. In the UK all pregnant women undergo a routine perabdominal ultrasound scan at 20 weeks' gestation. There were approximately 250000 scans performed in our catchment area during the study period. A total of 270 children were born with cleft lip and/or palate, of which 130 had cleft lip with or without cleft palate. Out of these, 23 were positively diagnosed by the ultrasound scan. The specificity was 100% and the sensitivity was 17.5%. Only two diagnoses led to termination of the pregnancy. Copyright 2001 The British Association of Plastic Surgeons.