Velopharyngeal Insufficiency Outcomes Prediction Study
Cleft palate is the most common craniofacial disorder. Following cleft palate surgery, 10-40% of patients will develop VPI (velopharyngeal insufficiency). VPI impacts a child’s speech intelligibility and acceptability affecting their education, relationships, and self-image. Two main types of surgery exist for VPI (palate re-repair and pharyngoplasty), and both have been reported with various efficacies at resolving speech, and potential risks of patients developing obstructive sleep apnea. This is a North American multicenter prospective observational study comparing the effectiveness of palate re-repair with pharyngoplasty for the treatment of VPI. The knowledge gained from this study will enable surgeons to select the most effective, least harmful surgical procedure for each patient.

Recalculating the Lip Height in the Unilateral Cleft Lip Fisher Anatomic Subunit Repair
During surgical repair of a cleft lip, a plastic surgeon will use a surgical pen to mark their planned incisions. The lip height can be estimated using a calculation known as the Fisher’s formula. However, surgeons will often adjust the lip height using their clinical experience. This study aims to determine if the adjusted lip height can be calculated by a new mathematical formula. This will enable plastic surgery trainees to more effectively use the Fisher anatomic subunit repair technique.

Identification of Rejection-Resistant Fibroblasts for the Improvement of Transplantation Outcomes and Wound Healing
Patients with injured tissues and/or organs, such as major burns covering >40% total body surface area (TBSA) can be treated by replacing damaged areas with a biological substitute. Biological substitutes cultured from a patient’s own cells have yielded promising results in early clinical trials; however their manufacturing time leads to treatment delays. Allogenic skin substitutes are an alternative, yet there is a risk of immune rejection. Therefore the identification of immune rejection-resistant skin cells could offer a solution. The main cells of skin are fibroblasts, and thus make up a large component of biological skin substitutes. Our preliminary studies identified a specific type of mouse fibroblasts that are resistant to transplant rejection. In this study, we are using skin samples obtained during the planned removal of excess tissue (e.g. extra digits, ear tags), to identify human fibroblasts that also resist rejection.