Nasolabial Appearance Evaluation by Surgeons and Inexperienced Health Workers after Primary Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair Using the Cronin Technique

This study aimed to evaluate nasolabial appearance following lip repair using the Cronin technique in patients with complete unilateral cleft lip by utilizing the unilateral cleft lip surgical outcomes evaluation (UCL SOE) scale.

Nine evaluators of different backgrounds, including three oral and maxillofacial surgeons, three oral and maxillofacial surgery residents, and three dental nurses, conducted the evaluations. Twenty-four pairs of photographs of patients with unilateral cleft lip who underwent lip repair using the Cronin technique were evaluated. Intra- and inter-evaluator reliability tests were conducted using the intraclass correlation coefficient.

The intraclass correlation coefficients for each component and the total score revealed that oral and maxillofacial surgeons had very high intraclass correlation coefficients and scored 1.00 on nearly all components, indicating an almost perfect correlation.

In this study, intra-evaluator and inter-evaluator intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) showed consistent and reliable results for evaluating the esthetic outcomes of unilateral cleft lip repair using the Cronin lip repair technique; however, differences exist in the assessments between the different groups of evaluators. The evaluation of nasolabial appearance with the UCL SOE scale showed good reliability and consistency regardless of the evaluator's background. In addition, the technique used in this study, the Cronin method, can be recommended for unilateral cleft lip repair.