Primary veloplasty: long-term results without maxillary deformity. a twenty-five year report

Primary veloplasty during the first year of life enables normal growth of the upper jaw and of the facial skeleton in patients with clefts. In spite of the remaining cleft in the hard palate, intelligible speech can be learned. The closure of the residual cleft of the hard palate is generally postponed until the age of 12 to 14 years, when the normal growth of the jaw is virtually completed. This method has been used in the clinic by the author and his father for thirty years. The results after primary veloplasty for some hundred adult patients show normal maxillary and cranial growth both clinically and radiologically. Primary veloplasty operations constitute acceptable restorative surgical treatment of the maxilla. Various problems of timing and methods of cleft palate treatment are discussed. The author's cases are summarized.