Estudo epidemiológico das fissuras orofaciais

Abstract

Orofacial clefts are congenital malformations of multifactorial etiology that can affect the individual´s development in many ways. Therefore, the treatment must be immediate and requires a specialized multiprofessional team acting by a long term protocol, which demands a quality service in public health. Accurate epidemiological data are essential to comprehend the local reality and it can result in improvements at planning public health policies. In this regard, the aim of this study is to perform a literature review and compare the international epidemiologic profile of orofacial clefts with the Brazilian profile, and compare it with the profile of the state of Sergipe, in northeastern Brazil. To achieve this, a bibliographic search was conducted through the main databases after recent publications on epidemiology of orofacial clefts. It could be observed that the worldwide profile consists in individuals with cleft lip and palate, with low or average socioeconomic conditions and of the male sex, which is a minority only in cleft palate cases. The highest prevalence is presented by the Asians (20.04 per 10,000) and the African populations are the less affected (2.89 per 10,000). In general, there were great similarities between the three analyzed profiles.