Magnetic resonance imaging and surgical repair of cleft palate in a four-week-old canine (Canis familiaris): an animal model for cleft palate repair.

Successful cleft palate repair (palatoplasty) was accomplished in a male canine pup from a kindred with autosomal recessive transmission for a complete cleft palate phenotype. This case represents the potential application of a new animal model for cleft palate repair. This reproducible congenital defect provides a clinically relevant model to improve research into the human anomaly, as compared with previous iatrogenic or teratogenically induced animal models. This case report presents the basis for new repair techniques and for studying the genetic basis of the cleft palate defect.