Posterior wall augmentation for treatment of velopharyngeal insufficiency

Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) can be treated surgically with various operations. This article describes the use of a superiorly based folded pharyngeal flap for posterior wall augmentation to treat VPI. This is a retrospective study indicating that a folded flap to augment the posterior wall is likely to be as effective as other surgical techniques to treat small velopharyngeal gaps. Patients selected for this procedure had very good velar motion. Postoperative nasometric zoo passage scores improved by an average of 18 over preoperative scores. Additionally, a correlation was found between age and nasometry improvement after surgery. Younger patients did better. Patients in whom VPI was caused by adenoidectomy did well. The 2 syndromic patients did not do as well when treated with this type of operation.