Introduction and importance Tessier 7 craniofacial congenital cleft is a rare anomaly, occurring in about 1 in 80,000 to 1 in 300,000 live births, comprising 0.3% to 1.0% of total cleft cases. A total of 24 cases have been reported since 2000. This case is the 25th instance and possibly the first reported in Nepal.
METHODS: A 3-year-old child, accompanied by parents, presented at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with complaints of feeding difficulties, speech impediment, and aesthetic concerns. Diagnosis revealed Tessier number 7 congenital cleft. Surgical intervention successfully repaired the cleft, involving straight-line closure of mucosa and skin, suturing of perioral muscles to establish a new modiolus and formation of a new commissure. Postoperative follow-up over 6 months demonstrated excellent functional and aesthetic results without any complications.
UNASSIGNED: Tessier 7 congenital cleft arises from anomalous fetal development, stemming from incomplete fusion of the maxillary and mandibular processes of the first pharyngeal arch. Surgical correction poses challenges due to atypical anatomical positioning and cleft appearance. The repair involves layered closure, linear mucosal closure, perioral muscle reorganization to establish a new modiolus, skin closure via straight-line or z-plasty techniques, culminating in the creation of a new commissure.
CONCLUSIONS: Given its rarity, surgeons must be well-versed in the intricate surgical protocol for Tessier 7 cleft treatment. Early intervention is crucial for optimal functional and cosmetic results. Key steps encompass establishing a new modiolus, forming a new commissure, and achieving effective skin closure.

A congenital cheek fistula is a rare malformation in the buccal area. Here, we report the case of a congenital cheek fistula in a 50-year-old woman who visited our clinic with complaints of swelling and pain in her left cheek. Physical examination revealed a small hole in the left corner of the mouth present since birth. She had no other congenital malformations in the maxillofacial region such as an accessory ear and cleft lip. Manual compression of the cheek mass induced serous discharge from the hole. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a cystic lesion in the left cheek and a fistula within the orbicularis oris muscle that opened into the small hole. After immediate incision and drainage of the cyst, both the cyst and fistula were surgically resected. The cystic lesion was completely delineated from the boundary of the parotid gland. The orbicularis oris muscle was partially incised to remove the fistula and the surrounding scar tissue. Histopathological examination of the resected specimen revealed a cavity consisting of epithelium inside the fistula. The postoperative course was insignificant. No recurrence of the cyst was observed six months postoperatively. The operative and pathological findings demonstrated that the ectoderm-derived epithelial tissue was enclosed by the mesoderm-derived muscle tissue. The mixture of different germ layer-derived tissues suggested that the fistula was a type of congenital transverse facial cleft induced by malfusion of the mandibular and maxillary prominences during embryonic development. The differential diagnoses of the congenital cheek fistula included orocutaneous fistulas and salivary fistulas. MRI was useful in delineating the border between the lesion and the surrounding tissue.

BACKGROUND: Several variations on the surgical technique for macrostomia repair have been described in the literature. There has been controversy regarding the preferred method for commissuroplasty and skin closure for optimal functional and aesthetic results. The aim of this study is to present these techniques and the most described methods up to date.Further, five patients operated with a combination of techniques are presented.
METHODS: PRISMA guidelines were followed for literature review.Five consecutive patients with unilateral macrostomia operated during a period of one and a half years at our craniofacial department were included in this study.
RESULTS: 31 studies on macrostomia repair were obtained. The layered closure technique is widely described with several variations on closure of the inner mucosa, orbicularis muscle, commissure and skin. The inner mucosal layer is in most cases sutured with a straight line closure technique. The muscle is most often duplicated and sutured with upper branches overlapping lower branches. The skin is in most cases sutured with either a z- or a w-plasty with variations.The five presented patients all had satisfactory functional and aesthetic results at follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS: Many variations of surgical techniques for macrostomia repair have been presented in the past. We believe that each case of macrostomia needs to be assessed with a tailored surgical plan in order to create the best results. A combination of different techniques with Bütow and Botha\'s and Kaplan\'s technique as a starting point, is believed to give satisfactory functional and aesthetic results.

UNASSIGNED: Transverse facial clefts are Tessier\'s number 7 facial cleft among numbers 1-15 in Tessier\'s classification of craniofacial malformations, which varies from a simple widening oral commissure to a complete fissure extending towards the external ear.
UNASSIGNED: In a patient with a transverse facial cleft, to functionally arrange the orbicularis oris muscle and form the oral commissure naturally, we performed a surgical procedure including orbicularis oris muscle reconstruction and cheiloplasty with Z-plasty.
UNASSIGNED: We achieved good results functionally and esthetically by orbicularis oris muscle reconstruction and cheiloplasty with Z-plasty. The surgical modality of our anatomical repair and 3 months follow-up results are presented.

OBJECTIVE: Outcomes from surgical repair of transverse facial cleft (macrostomia) may not be very satisfactory when conventional methods are used to position the oral commissure to be repaired. To improve patient outcomes, we developed a modified oral commissure positioning and reconstruction method for transverse facial cleft repair.
METHODS: In the modified positioning method, the oral commissure at the abnormal side was positioned precisely and reconstructed by a combination of two conventional methods, namely, the distance measurement method and the anatomical charateristics method. The function of the orbicularis oris muscle was preserved. Postoperative surgical scar score and oral commissure symmetry score were determined and compared between patients and healthy controls. The scores ranged from one to five, with one representing the best and five indicating the worst results.
RESULTS: Nine patients aged 4-31 months (7 girls) underwent the modified transverse facial cleft repair surgery. All the patients had unilateral transverse facial cleft with or without microsomia and/or complete cleft lip. The patients were followed up for one to five years. Although average surgical scar scores of patients (close-mouth: 1.8 ± 0.8, range: 1.0-2.8; open-mouth: 1.8 ± 0.9, range 1.0-3.6) remained significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of the healthy controls (N = 8, close-mouth 1.1 ± 0.4, range: 1.0-1.4, open-mouth: 1.1 ± 0.3, range: 1.0-1.2) 6 months after the surgery, their average close-mouth oral commissure symmetry score (1.9 ± 0.7, range: 1.6-2.8) was similar (P = 0.381) to those of the healthy controls (1.8 ± 0.8, range: 1.0-2.6).
CONCLUSIONS: The modified procedure appears to lead to promising long-term benefit on restoring oral commissure symmetry.

Various techniques have been performed for repairing transverse facial clefts. This study aimed to investigate an optimal method for repairing transverse facial clefts. Twenty-seven patients from 2008 to 2017 were evaluated. Their mean age at repair was 6.7 months with a follow-up period of 6 months to 10 years. A method using an inferior lip-based triangular mucosa flap and a superior lip-based rectangular vermilion-mucosa flap was designed for transposition. The orbicularis oris was reconstructed by using everting mattress suture. The skin was sutured using linear cutaneous closure with a single superiorly rotated Z-plasty lateral to the commissure. A postoperative symmetrical commissure was obtained owing to complete contraction with the new commissure directed 2 or 3 mm medial to the symmetrical point on the lips individually for the 27 patients. Lateral displacement of the reconstructed commissure was not observed. The patients showed a plump and symmetrical cheek on the cleft side. Twenty-one patients with hemifacial microsomia achieved a prominent improvement compared with their preoperative appearance, although the postoperative cheeks still did not show fullness because of the lesser facial tissue on the cleft side. In the early follow-up period, most patients showed a minimal scar during movement. However, the scar became thinner and symmetrical oral movement was achieved over time. This method obtained a natural oral movement without a conspicuous scar and was reliable and remarkable for the postoperative appearance of commissural symmetry. We conclude that this is an optimal method to repair transverse facial clefts.

BACKGROUND: Transverse facial cleft (Tessier type 7) or congenital macrostomia is a rare congenital anomaly seldom occurring alone and is frequently associated with deformities of the structures developing from the first and second branchial arches. The reported incidence of No. 7 cleft varies from 1 in 60,000 to 1 in 300,000 live births.
METHODS: Seventeen patients of transeverse facial cleft who presented to us in last 5 years were included in the study. Their history regarding familial and environmental predispositions was recorded. The cases were analysed on basis of sex, laterality, severity, associated anomalies and were graded according to severity. They were operated by z plasty technique and were followed up for 2 years to look for effectiveness of the technique and its complications.
RESULTS: Out of the seventeen patients of transverse cleft, none had familial predilection or any environmental etiology like antenatal radiological exposure or intake of drugs of teratogenic potential. Most of the patients (9/17) were associated with hemifacial microsomia and 1 patient was associated with Treacher Colin\'s Syndrome. Out of the 6 cases of Grade I clefts, 4 were isolated transverse clefts and of the 10 patients of Grade II clefts, 7 were associated with hemifacial microsomia. We encountered only one case of Grade III Transverse Cleft which was not only associated with hemifacial microsomia but also had cardiac anomaly. Out of the 17 cases, 15 were operated and in most of them the outcome was satisfactory.