Pharyngeal morphology in children with submucous cleft palate with and without surgery

Seventy-three children with submucous cleft palate (34 girls and 39 boys) with a mean age of 6.2 years (range 5.5–7.5) were compared retrospectively from lateral cephalograms. Thirty of the patients were not operated on, while 43 had had either palatal closure (n=13, mean age at operation: 1.7 years, range 0.8–3.9) or velopharyngeal flap (VPP) surgery (n=30, mean age at operation 3.7 years, range 1–6.8). There were no significant differences in the pharyngeal dimensions between girls and boys or patients without surgery and with palatal repair. Patients who had had VPP had the largest sagittal depths of the nasopharyngeal airway and smallest sagittal depths of the oropharyngeal airway. VPP in childhood was associated with narrowing of the lower pharyngeal airway.