The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia modification of the Furlow double-opposing z-palatoplasty: Long-term speech and growth results

Furlow's Palatoplasty for Cleft Palate Repair

“…Three children developed fistulae at the junction of the soft and hard palates giving an incidence of 9.09% which compares favourably with the 7% to 22% quoted by other authors [6,[13][14][15][16]. Two fistulae closed spontaneously in about eight months.…”

“…This figure compares favourably with 17% to 43% for the Wardill type of repair as quoted by other authors. [4,6,13,14]. There was no flap necrosis in any of the cases.…”

“…Two fistulae closed spontaneously in about eight months. One required a secondary surgery to close the fistula, a rate of 3.03% as compared to 6-8% in other major series [13,14]. The mucosal flap on the right side underwent partial necrosis in three cases.…”

“…By avoiding a straight line incision, the zigzag incision in a rapidly moving organ like the soft palate gives better functional results [4,5,7]. The rate of fistulae formation is less than in other procedures [6,[13][14][15].Palatal competence is better and rates of VPI were much less in all studies reported [6,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. It has also been offered as a surgery for VPI [12,20].…”

“…It has also been offered as a surgery for VPI [12,20]. Large raw areas of the hard palate are not left exposed as in VKW procedures, scar formation and maxillary retrusion are minimal [6,7,13,14,19].Speech results in all reported series are excellent [6,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15]17] and hearing loss is an infrequent problem [6,7,14]. The drawbacks of this procedure include a demanding and time consuming surgery [4][5][6][7].…”