Background During the early stages of lymphedema, active physiologic surgical treatment can be applied. However, lymphedema patients often have limited knowledge and misconceptions regarding lymphedema and surgical treatment. We analyzed the correlations between lymphedema severity and surgical technique according to patients’ awareness of surgical treatment for secondary upper extremity lymphedema (UEL).Methods Patients with UEL diagnosed between December 2017 and December 2019 were retrospectively evaluated. At the time of their presentation to our hospital for the treatment of lymphedema, they were administered a questionnaire about lymphedema and lymphedema surgery. Based on the results, patients were classified as being aware or unaware of surgical treatment. Lymphedema severity was classified according to the arm dermal backflow (ADB) stage and the MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) stage based on indocyanine green lymphography conducted at presentation. Surgical techniques were compared between the two groups.Results Patients who were aware of surgical treatment had significantly lower initial ADB and MDACC stages (P<0.05) and more frequently underwent physiologic procedures than excisional procedures (P=0.003).Conclusions If patients are actively educated regarding surgical treatment of lymphedema, physiologic procedures may be performed during the early stages of UEL.

To date, there have been no reports of patients showing a Tessier number 7 cleft with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. Furthermore, no studies have established the sequence, plan, or timing of surgical methods for treating patients presenting the above anomalies simultaneously. We report a case of a Tessier number 7 cleft with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. Two months after birth, lip adhesion was performed on the unilateral complete cleft lip and total excision was performed on the skin tag. At 4 months of age, Tessier number 7 cleft was corrected. At 6 months of age, surgery involving two small triangular flaps was performed on the unilateral incomplete cleft lip after performing lip adhesion. At 13 months of age, two-flap palatoplasty with a vomer flap was performed on the complete cleft palate. At 6 years of age, open rhinoplasty was performed on the unilateral cleft lip nose deformity. At 9 years of age, bone grafting was performed for the alveolar cleft. At follow-up appointments up to 13 years of age, there were no major complications. Here, we present this patient, surgical procedures and timelines, and show our results demonstrating good postoperative outcomes.

Long-term follow-up results of many surgical techniques for lip adhesion are unavailable. Thus, we report the surgical results of patients who underwent lip adhesions performed by a single surgeon. We retrospectively analyzed two-dimensional photographs of 29 patients aged 1 year who underwent lip adhesion and definite lip repair. Among these patients, we analyzed the photographs of 20 patients aged 6 years who underwent secondary rhinoplasty. The ratio of the cleft side length to the noncleft side length was calculated. Only the upper lip length in the photographs of 1-year-olds was measured; both the upper lip and nose lengths were measured in the photographs of 6-year-olds. Lip width, vermilion height, and medial lip height on the cleft and noncleft sides of 1-year-olds were not significantly different; the alar base width ratio was 1.17 AE 0.15, and the lateral lip height ratio was 0.91 AE 0.09 (P < 0.001). No significant differences were observed in lip width and vermilion height between the cleft and non-cleft sides of the upper lip of 6-year-olds; the alar base width ratio was 1.22 AE 0.16, medial lip height ratio was 1.11 AE 0.11, and lateral lip height ratio was 0.89 AE 0.09 (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the alar projection and nasal dome height on the cleft side of the nose; the nostril height and width ratios were 0.82 AE 0.11 and 1.31 AE 0.21 (P < 0.001), respectively. These consecutively performed lip adhesions for patients with wide unilateral complete cleft lip resulted in excellent long-term results. Therefore, lip adhesion for wide unilateral complete cleft lip is a reasonable alternative to presurgical molding.