This study aims to map the existing sources of evidence on perioperative care and recovery strategies for primary cleft palate repair, to identify elements that should be included in an enhanced recovery pathway (ERP), and to identify gaps in current knowledge.
Design
Scoping review.
Setting
ERPs are evidence-based, patient-centered, multimodal, perioperative care pathways designed to reduce surgical stress and improve postoperative outcomes and are increasingly being reported in the cleft lip and palate literature.
Interventions
PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Scopus databases were searched. Results were uploaded to Covidence systematic review software. Studies were included for analysis if they described strategies or elements for enhanced recovery following primary cleft palate repair.
Main Outcome Measures
ERP elements and outcome measures were recorded and collated.
Results
Forty-seven studies were included. Frequently reported topics included anesthesia, peri-operative analgesia, and parent education. There was a dearth of evidence about peri-operative nursing care. Based on the extracted data, we propose that the following elements be included in any ERP for primary cleft palate repair: preoperative parent/caregiver education; minimization of preoperative fasting time; preoperative analgesia; local anesthetic nerve blocks; perioperative antibiotics and ondansetron; postoperative non-opioid analgesia; early postoperative oral feeding and discharge planning.
Conclusions
The findings provide the framework to develop an institutional ERP for primary cleft palate repair. The positive contribution of consistent nursing care to enhanced recovery is obvious but under-investigated in the literature to date. The impact of ERPs on parent-reported outcomes also warrants further investigation.
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