The Craniofacial Society of Great Britain & Ireland Annual Scientific Conference
9-11 April 2003 University of Leeds.
The Cleft Lip & Palate Association of Ireland was pleased to support the attendance of Julie Young, Anne McGillivary and Louise Cafferky at the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain & Ireland Annual Scientific Conference in Leeds in April 2003. The following is a report of the Conference furnished by Anne McGillivary.
Five members of The Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street Team attended the conference: Mr. Michael Earley, Consultant Plastic Surgeon, Professor Triona Sweeney, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Louise Cafferky and Julie Young, Senior Speech and Language Therapists and Anne McGillivary, Cleft & Craniofacial Co-ordinator.
Day 1 : Specialist interest groups: -Co-ordinators -Speech and Language Therapy -Nurses -Orthodontists -Psychology -Clinical directors -Surgeons
Days 2 & 3 : Scientific Programme:
There were two guest lecturers;
- Professor Roberto Brusati from Milan who spoke on ‘Primary Cheilo-Rhynoplasty in Unilateral and Bilateral Clefts’.
- Ms Lidia Bobock From Romania who spoke on ‘Cleft care in Romania – The good and the bad.’
There were numerous presentations from: CLAPA UK, Plastic Surgery, Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Orthodontics, Speech and Language Therapists, Nursing, ENT Surgery.
Some of the presentations included were:
- A UK case control study on folic acid and other multivitamin supplements in the aetiology of oro-facial clefts.’ Mr. P.A. Mossey et al.(Aberdeen)
Conclusions: ‘There was no apparent protective effect of folic acid supplements in the periconceptual period, but the effect of multivitamin supplements not containing folic acid may be a protective.’ - ‘Changes in cleft width from birth to three months – a longitudinal study.’ Mr. NSG Mercer et al (Bristol)
Conclusion: ‘The finding of collapse over the first three months of life adds more to the controversy of facial growth than it removes.’ - ‘The development of a valid and reliable tool for auditing speech outcome in cleft care.’ Dr. A John et al (Prof. T. Sweeney) (Birmingham)
Summary: ‘CRANE recruited a team of five researchers for this project to develop a valid and reliable audit tool for measuring speech outcomes for use by Speech and Language Therapists in cleft audit over a 16 month period. The results of criterion validity and intra and inter-rater reliability check have shown the tool to be reliable and valid when used by specialist speech and language therapists who have received training.’ - ‘Nasalance scores for normal speaking Irish children’ Prof T. Sweeney et al (Dublin) Conclusion: ‘The study provides normative nasalance data for English-speaking Irish children, which has not been previously established. There was a significant difference between nasalance scores for different speech stimuli.’
- ‘Alveolar bone grafting: Achieving the organisational standards determined by CSAG; a Baseline audit at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.’ Mr. J Clarkson et al (Birmingham)
Summary: The results of ‘an audit of alveolar bone grafting over a 33 month period, post implementation’ were presented. It highlighted the difficulties of implementing and increased clinical workload with standardised pre and post-operative data collection. - ‘Incidence and natural history of middle ear disease in cleft lip, cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency.’ Mr. Earley (Mr. P Sheahan) et al (Dublin)
Conclusions: ‘Middle ear disease is common in children with cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency, and, unlike the case for children without clefts, has a prolonged recovery, and a substantial incidence of late sequelae. Our results underlie the lack of long-term benefits of ventilation tubes in this group.’ - ‘Dental health and history of dental attendance in children age 5 years attending the regional cleft clinic in the west midlands.’ Mrs VJ Clark et al (Birmingham)
Conclusions: Children in this cleft population had twice the decay experience compared with the dental health survey for children living in the west midlands. The decay experience was highest in children with bilateral cleft lip and palate. - ‘Five year follow up of cleft lip and palate. Are all records available?’ Mr P Lewis et al (Swansea)
Conclusions: ‘Record collection is currently variable. Common protocols should be initiated and followed, providing minimum distress to each child, tailored for each primary cleft diagnosis. This should improve data collection towards a goal of a hundred per cent.’ - ‘Audit of pain management following cleft lip and palate surgery’ Sr. D Jonas (Manchester)
Conclusions: ‘Implementation of analgesia guidelines for infants undergoing cleft lip and palate surgery can improve parent satisfaction and ensure a stress free period on the ward for the child, parents and nursing staff.’ - ‘The use of language in the treatment of cleft lip and palate.’A De Laszlo (CLAPA London)
”The use of language is increasingly being recognised as having an effect on how things are understood and experienced. The choice of words and phrases used in the context of providing cleft treatment could therefore be acknowledged to have an effect on how the condition is understood and experienced by patients and families. This paper contains a review of the use of language in relevant literature, a focus on the growing use of descriptions of individuals ‘having cleft’ and professionals ‘working in cleft’ and an invitation to professionals to consider the language they use with patients and families.’
Anne McGillivary
