FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Using a nerve blocker before surgery to correct a cleft palate may reduce or eliminate the need to prescribe opioids to infants to control pain after the procedure, according to a new study.
A nerve block administered to a nerve that provides sensation in the palate, upper jaw and upper lip stops pain during surgery and significantly relieves it afterward, researchers recently reported in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.
“Our study presents preliminary but promising results suggesting that maxillary suprazygomatic nerve block may reduce perioperative opioid consumption in primary clefts in children, particularly in cleft palate closure,” said lead researcher Dr. Rutger Schols in a press release. He is a plastic surgeon at MosaKids Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands.
About 1 in 1,600 babies in the United States are born with a cleft palate, in which the roof of the mouth does not fully come together during pregnancy.
Early surgery, usually performed between 6 and 12 months of age, is important to help children regain their ability to speak, swallow, and breathe normally.
Opioids are often used to control pain in children after surgery, but researchers say they increase the risk of nausea, vomiting, constipation and shortness of breath in young children.
For the new study, researchers examined whether a nerve block would help control pain in 10 babies undergoing cleft palate surgery. The babies were on average 7 months old.
The results showed that the mean dose of morphine after cleft palate surgery in the nerve block group was 0.1 milligrams, compared with 0.75 milligrams in 10 other infants who had surgery without nerve blocks.
In addition, seven of the 10 babies treated with a nerve block did not require morphine for pain control, relying instead on non-opioid painkillers, the researchers said.
Babies with nerve blocks also spent slightly less time in the hospital and left the hospital after two days, compared to two and a half days for children who did not receive the nerve block.
However, the researchers noted that their study was small and patients were not randomly assigned to either the nerve block group or the standard care group. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results.
“By evaluating this targeted approach, we aim to contribute to the development of standardized perioperative pain management protocols to ultimately optimize recovery and shorten the length of hospital stay in this vulnerable patient population,” the researchers write.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more information about cleft palate.
SOURCES: Wolters Kluwer Health, press release, December 12, 2025; The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, December 6, 2025
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