The North Thames Regional Cleft Lip and Palate Service also known as the North Thames Cleft Centre is responsible for treating children and adult patients with clefts of the lip and palate the North Thames region. This includes North London, Essex and South and West Hertfordshire.
North London is an informally and inexactly defined part of London, England, which covers some of the area of the capital lying north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term North London, is used to differentiate the area from South London, East London and West London. Some parts of North London are also part of Central London. There is a northern postal area but this includes some areas not normally described as part of North London, while excluding many others that are.
Essex is a county in the south-east of England, north-east of London. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and London to the south-west. The county town is Chelmsford, the only city in the county. For government statistical purposes Essex is placed in the East of England region.
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in southern England. It is bordered by Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region.
Broomfield Hospital is an acute District General Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex operated by Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust.
Chelmsford is the principal settlement of the City of Chelmsford district, and the county town of Essex, in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately 30 miles (48 km) northeast of the notional centre of London at Charing Cross and approximately 22 miles (35 km) from Colchester. The urban area of the city has a population of approximately 112,000, whilst the district has a population of 168,310.
Great Ormond Street Hospital is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust.
In 1995, the number of centres in England and Wales offering treatment for clefts was reduced from around fifty to thirteen. This means the specialist teams at the thirteen centres are now treating more patients with clefts per year and as a result are able to offer a better service to their patients and families.
Research
The North Thames Cleft Team have been involved in extensive interdisciplinary research and have many ongoing projects.
Cleft lip and cleft palate, also known as orofacial cleft, is a group of conditions that includes cleft lip (CL), cleft palate (CP), and both together (CLP). A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the roof of the mouth contains an opening into the nose. These disorders can result in feeding problems, speech problems, hearing problems, and frequent ear infections. Less than half the time the condition is associated with other disorders.
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 non-profit medical facilities across North America. Children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients' ability to pay.
Van der Woude syndrome (VDWS) is a genetic disorder characterized by the combination of lower lip pits, cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P), and cleft palate only (CPO). The frequency of orofacial clefts ranges from 1:1000 to 1:500 births worldwide, and there are more than 400 syndromes that involve CL/P. VWS is distinct from other clefting syndromes due to the combination of cleft lip and palate (CLP) and CPO within the same family. Other features frequently associated with VWS include hypodontia in 10-81% of cases, narrow arched palate, congenital heart disease, heart murmur and cerebral abnormalities, syndactyly of the hands, polythelia, ankyloglossia, and adhesions between the upper and lower gum pads.
Operation Smile is a nonprofit medical service organization founded in 1982 by Dr. William P. Magee, Jr. and his wife Kathy Magee. It is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Interferon regulatory factor 6 also known as IRF6 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IRF6 gene.
ReSurge International, formerly known as Interplast, is the first international humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive surgery in developing countries, primarily to children with cleft lip and palate and burn scar contractures.
Vomer flap surgery was used prior to 1975 as a surgical treatment for children with cleft palate. In this procedure, the vomer bone was used to reconstruct the palate and cover the cleft.
Transforming Faces (TF) is a Canadian-based charity that provides comprehensive cleft care for children born with cleft lip and palate and their families. TF partners with local medical teams to ensure that life-changing cleft care is accessible for all.
Debbie Sell, OBE, FRCSLT is a leading British speech and language therapist.
The Cleft Lip and Palate Association also known as CLAPA is a charity registered in England and is the only UK-wide voluntary organisation specifically helping those with, and affected by, cleft lip and palate.
Pediatric plastic surgery is plastic surgery performed on children. Its procedures are most often conducted for reconstructive or cosmetic purposes. In children, this line is often blurred, as many congenital deformities impair physical function as well as aesthetics.
Donato D. LaRossa is a medical doctor and Professor Emeritus of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
A jaw abnormality is a disorder in the formation, shape and/or size of the jaw. In general abnormalities arise within the jaw when there is a disturbance or fault in the fusion of the mandibular processes. The mandible in particular has the most differential typical growth anomalies than any other bone in the human skeleton. This is due to variants in the complex symmetrical growth pattern which formulates the mandible.
S. M. Balaji is a dental and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He is the only Indian to be listed in the Top 10 Dental Scientist. He specialises in repair of cleft palate, rhinoplasty, ear reconstruction, jaw reconstruction, facial asymmetry correction, dental implantology, maxillofacial surgery and Craniofacial surgery.
The Shriners Hospital for Children (Galveston) is a 30-bed non-profit pediatric burn hospital, research, and teaching center located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, US. Part of a 22-hospital system, it is one of the three Shriner's Hospitals that specialize exclusively in burn care and consists of an intensive care unit with 15 acute beds and a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 reconstruction beds along with three operating rooms. The hospital is verified as a burn center by the American Burn Association and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In 2012, the hospital joined the Texas Medical Center as its 50th member institution.
The Shriners Hospital for Children (Houston) is a non-profit, 40-bed pediatric orthopedic hospital, research and teaching center located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, United States. It is one of 22 hospitals belonging to the Shriners Hospital for Children Network. Faculty work closely with the Baylor College of Medicine, Scott White Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Hypernasal speech is a disorder that causes abnormal resonance in a human's voice due to increased airflow through the nose during speech. It is caused by an open nasal cavity resulting from an incomplete closure of the soft palate and/or velopharyngeal sphincter. In normal speech, nasality is referred to as nasalization and is a linguistic category that can apply to vowels or consonants in a specific language. The primary underlying physical variable determining the degree of nasality in normal speech is the opening and closing of a velopharyngeal passageway between the oral vocal tract and the nasal vocal tract. In the normal vocal tract anatomy, this opening is controlled by lowering and raising the velum or soft palate, to open or close, respectively, the velopharyngeal passageway.
The Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland (CFSGBI), commonly known as the Craniofacial Society, is a professional organisation and charity dedicated to the study of cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial anomalies based at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London in the United Kingdom. The Society first convened in 1970 and continued to meet on an ad hoc basis, leading to its formal constitutional establishment in 1985. The Society has since grown in terms of membership and stature and has developed to become the leading professional organisation for cleft health care professionals in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Katherine Vig is an American orthodontist who is the first woman to receive the Albert H. Ketcham Award in Orthodontics in 2009 in the award's 80-year history. Vig is also the past president of American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.
The Overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal is a registered charity in the UK, that exists to provide free facial surgery for poor children and young adults in Pakistan. The OPSA team operate on facial abnormalities including cleft lip and palate.
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