Pre- and post-palatoplasty Eustachian tube function in infants with cleft palate

One past study conducted in 1986 reported Eustachian tube dilation with swallowing during the forced response test (FRT) in a very high percentage (>80%) of cleft palate patients both before and after palatoplasty. The present study was designed to determine the reproducibility of those results.

The FRT was used to evaluate Eustachian tube function in a cohort of cleft palate children before and after palatoplasty. Pre-palatoplasty FRT data were available for 25 ears and post-palatoplasty data were available for 31 ears; 14 ears had paired pre-post palatoplasty test data. The results for the FRT tests were compared between the pre- and post-palatoplasty groups for the cross-sectional data and for the paired subset of ears.

The 3 passive function measures of the FRT, the opening pressure, closing pressure and passive resistance were not different before and after palatoplasty for either data set. Similarly, 2 of the 3 active function measures, active resistance and dilatory efficiency, were not different pre- and post-palatoplasty, but the percent of ears evidencing tubal dilation for the cross-sectional data was 39% and 62% (p=NS) and for the paired subset was 33% and 83% (p=0.04) at the pre- and post-palatoplasty tests.

Palatoplasty had no effect on most measures of the FRT, but may have had a positive effect on the ability to dilate the Eustachian tube during swallowing. The high frequency of ears with tubal dilation before palatoplasty reported in the 1986 study was not reproduced but that frequency after palatoplasty was similar.