Early Cleft Palate Repair by a Modified Technique Without Relaxing Incisions

Objective This study sought to evaluate a modified palatoplasty technique (MPT) concerning the postoperative outcomes and associated influencing factors. Design A retrospective cohort study. Participants and setting One hundred forty-three consecutive patients with non-syndromic cleft palate, who received MPT before one year of age within an oral and maxillofacial surgery department of a university-affiliated tertiary hospital between 2011-2017, were reviewed. Main measures The postoperative wound healing and velopharyngeal function (VPF) were the primary outcome measures. The sex, age at surgery, cleft type, cleft width, palatal width, soft palate length, pharyngeal cavity depth, and operation duration were preselected as influencing factors. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Results The mean age at surgery was 9 ± 1.31 months (5-11), and the average cleft width was 9.03 ± 2.41 mm (4-15). The rate of incomplete cleft palate was 84.6% while the complete cleft palate was 15.4%. Complete wound healing was reported in 96.5% while the others (3.5%) had persistent oronasal fistula. About 90.2% of cases have shown normal velopharyngeal function whereas the others (9.8%) had sustained velopharyngeal insufficiency. The wound healing appeared to be significantly impacted by cleft width and pharyngeal cavity depth ( P = .015 and 0.049, respectively). However, none of the factors had a significant association with VPF. Conclusions The present modified palatoplasty technique has obtained a low fistula rate and appropriate speech outcome. Therefore, this MPT could be promoted for early repairing cleft palate of different severities.