An investigation into the variables associated with length of hospital stay related to primary cleft lip and palate surgery and alveolar bone grafting

This retrospective study evaluated variables associated with length of stay (LOS) in hospital for 406 admissions of primary cleft lip and palate and alveolus surgery between January 2007 and April 2009. Three patients were treated as day cases, 343 (84%) stayed one night, 48 (12%) stayed 2 nights and 12 (3%) stayed >2 nights. Poisson regression analysis showed that there was no association between postoperative LOS and age, distance travelled, diagnosis and type of operation, with a p value >0.2 for all variables. 60/406 patients stayed 2 nights or more postoperatively mostly due to poor pain control and inadequate oral intake. Patients with palate repair were more likely to have postoperative LOS >1 night, compared to patients with lip repair, p value = 0.011. Four patients (1%), all of whom had undergone cleft palate surgery, were readmitted within 4 weeks of the operation due to respiratory obstruction or haemorrhage. Using logistic regression, evidence showed that these readmissions were related to a longer original postoperative LOS. This study shows that length of stay for primary cleft lip, palate and alveolus surgery can in most cases be limited to one night postoperatively, provided that adequate support can be provided at home.