Secondary Columellar Lengthening in Bilateral Nasal Cleft Deformities With a Sliding Flap Cheilorhinoplasty

A characteristic short columella and decreased nasal projection is common in patients with bilateral cleft lip and palate following primary repair. The main disadvantage of the previously described secondary columellar lengthening procedures is the cosmetically undesirable "banking" of forked flaps in the nasal sill. We introduce a modified sliding flap cheilorhinoplasty that involves the recruitment of soft tissue adjacent to lip scars to achieve adequate columellar lengthening without the aforementioned banking of forked flaps. The end result is simultaneous columellar lengthening and lip scar revision.