Incidence of Postoperative Velopharyngeal Insufficiency in Late Palate Repair

Abstract

Primary palate repair at older than 2 years resulted in acceptable clinical speech outcomes in our patient population, there was an increase in the incidence of postoperative velopharyngeal insufficiency with increasing age at the time of palatoplasty. There was no correlation with cleft type, surgical technique, or surgeon's experience.

Speech production in 3‐year‐old internationally adopted children with unilateral cleft lip and palate

“…, Zhao et al . ). This could also be of importance in understanding the result of the present study, since the majority of the adopted children had their soft palate repaired at a mean age of 24 months, i.e., much later than the control group, and thus had had an open palate longer than the control group.…”

“…Earlier reports have suggested that there is a relationship between age at palate repair and velopharyngeal function, indicating a higher prevalence of velopharyngeal impairment following a late palate repair (Sullivan et al 2014, Zhao et al 2012. This could also be of importance in understanding the result of the present study, since the majority of the adopted children had their soft palate repaired at a mean age of 24 months, i.e., much later than the control group, and thus had had an open palate longer than the control group.…”

“…There are indications that late palatal surgery possibly increases the need for secondary surgery to improve speech due to incomplete velopharyngeal closure (Zhao et al . ). Hence, there might be a risk of more speech difficulties in children treated with late palate closure.…”

“…Internationally adopted children with CLP often arrive in Sweden at an age when native-born children with CLP have usually had their primary palatal surgery completed. There are indications that late palatal surgery possibly increases the need for secondary surgery to improve speech due to incomplete velopharyngeal closure Internationally adopted children with UCLP 629 (Zhao et al 2012). Hence, there might be a risk of more speech difficulties in children treated with late palate closure.…”

Autologous Fat Injection Combined with Palatoplasty and Pharyngoplasty for Velopharyngeal Insufficiency and Cleft Palate: Preliminary Experience

“…Our indication of posterior pharyngeal fat injection would be as follows: (1) VPI types III and V, (2) cleft palate patients with a short soft palate and a huge pharyngeal cavity whose velopharyngeal closure could not be improved completely through simple palatoplasty, and (3) no obvious internal carotid artery aberrance. Eleven patients aged 5 to 26 years (mean age, 18.1) were included in the study (6 males and 5 females).…”