Cleft Palate Repair Using Single Flap Palatoplasty in Patient With Associated Palatal Hemangioma

Hemangiomas are the most common tumors of childhood with an average incidence of 10%. It is unusual for hemangiomas, which are already rarely seen isolated on the palate, to coexist with cleft palate as in the authors' patient. Four months old baby was admitted with isolated Veau 2 cleft palate and a red-purple colored raised lesion involving almost the whole right side of the hard palate. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed intensive contrasting solid nodule with a lobulated contour that was covering the right half of the hard palate, measuring 2.2×1.3 cm. To reduce the size of the vascular lesion 7 mg/d oral propranolol treatment was initiated. Following reduction in the size of hemangioma, the cleft palate was repaired at 11 months of age. Single mucoperiosteal flap from the left side of the palate preserving the major palatine artery was elevated whereas right mucoperisteal flap was minimally dissected not to interfere with the hemangioma. No intraoperative and postoperative complications in both the early and late term were experienced. As a result, since early palatal repair is important to obtain ideal speech outcomes in cleft patients, repair should be performed in similar patients with hemangiomas without delaying the timing.