Incidence of Symptomatic Submucous Cleft Palate in the Netherlands: A Retrospective Cohort Study Over a Period of 22 Years

Objective:To analyze the incidence of submucous cleft palate (SMCP) in a large national database and raise awareness among referring providers: pediatricians, speech pathologists, and dentists to minimize delay in diagnosis.Design:Retrospective cohort study.Setting:Tertiary setting.Patients:Patients were extracted from the “Dutch Association for Cleft and Craniofacial Anomalies” database. A total of 6916 patients were included from 1997 until 2018 and divided into 2 groups (ie, SMCP versus cleft palate [CP]). Patients born before 1997 and adopted patients were excluded.Interventions:Clefts were classified as either hard of soft palatal involvement based on anatomical landmarks at first consultation.Main Outcome Measures:Primary outcomes were the patient characteristics in both groups (ie, gender, birth weight, gestational age, and additional anomalies). Secondary outcome was the time of diagnosis among subgroups.Results:In total, 532 patients were diagnosed with SMCP (7.7%). Birth weight, gestational age, and additional anomalies did not differ between subgroups, but there were more males in the SMCP group ( P < .001). The median age of diagnosis of the SMCP group was significantly higher than of the CP group (987 vs 27 days; P < .001). Over the course of 22 years, the time of diagnosis for SMCP did not decrease.Conclusion:Submucous cleft palate represents