[The pathological action of surrounding connective tissues of alar cartilage in the cleft lip nose].

Objective: This study was to explore the pathological action of the adjacent connective tissues of alar cartilage in unilateral cleft lip nose.

Methods: Anatomic-histological and pathoanatomical study was carried on 40 normal cadavers and 30 patients with secondary deformities of unilateral cleft lip during their operations.

Results: Six kinds of connective tissues with different histological features were found between the alar cartilage and adjacent skin, cartilage or bone. There was no histological difference in each connective tissue between the normal and the cleft lip nose. In the cleft lip nose, due to histological differences among the six connective tissues, there existed various changes of pathological dislocations between the alar cartilage and adjacent skin, cartilage or bone.

Conclusion: The authors suggest that the surrounding connective tissues of the alar cartilage play an important role and be the intrinsic basis to produce the characteristic deformities of the cleft lip nose. The result is helpful in understanding the anatomical and histological features of the connective tissues around the alar cartilage and the deformities of the unilateral cleft lip nose so as to select a reasonable operation method.