Introduction:

Within the standard treatment of patients with labio-maxillo-palatal cleft is presurgical orthopedics. This procedure seeks to modulate the position, alignment and stabilization of the maxillary segments prior to the first surgery. Although it is widely used, its effectiveness is currently controversial.

Methods:

We searched in Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

Results and conclusions:

We identified 14 systematic reviews that included 57 primary studies, five of which correspond to randomized trials. We conclude that it is uncertain whether presurgical orthopedics improves or deteriorates maxillary morphology, because the certainty of the evidence has been very low. On the other hand, presurgical orthopedics may make little or no difference to facial growth and development, occlusal alterations, parental satisfaction, feeding, speech, and facial and nasolabial appearance, but the certainty of the evidence is low.

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