CLASSIFICATION OF CONGENITAL CLEFTS OF THE LIP AND PALATE

Abstract

The group plan for the description, discussion and recording of cases of congenital cleft of the lip and palate has recently received considerable attention from those especially interested in the subject; but we believe that it is of so much importance that it should be advocated more strongly if its general adoption is anticipated. The growth of the plan has been gradual, suggestions being received here and there from our associates, and particularly from the late Dr. H. M. Sherman of San Francisco, whose definitions of the groups are so exact in wording and direct in form that we believe they will, with slight simplification, become the most important feature of the scheme. It is now generally accepted, by those who have given thought to the matter, that the term "harelip" should be discarded, and that the deformity thus named should be called "congenital cleft of the lip." Analysis of