Bilateral cleft lip.

Directing the course of care for a patient with bilateral cleft lip problems is a great responsibility and challenge for the surgeon, and it requires full commitment, effort, and talent. The goal is to enable the patient to develop anatomically, functionally, and psychologically as normally as possible and to achieve and succeed in life according to natural abilities, unimpeded by the congenital deformity complex. An individualized and organized effort must continue until the child is grown. One important aspect of this effort is the technical cleft lip repair. No matter how well done, perfection is always a step away. Open minds and energetic young students should be reluctant to accept the "status quo"; they should be encouraged to accept this challenge and make contributions. Although many other "big, new" operations may be very dramatic, none will be more satisfying to the surgeon than the well-performed bilateral cleft lip repair. The surgeon must remember that the day of cleft lip repair is one of the single most important days of a person's life. The result will have meaning from that moment on!