Primary Pharyngeal Flap With Palate Repair Improves Speech Outcome in Older Children and Adults: A Comparative Study

Repair of cleft palate after 6 years of age is controversial in regard to the surgical procedure and the speech outcome. Primary repair alone may not be considered sufficient to achieve intelligible speech. The authors consider addition of pharyngeal flap at the time of primary repair to be a significant factor in improving speech.

Prospectively maintained data of all cleft palate patients operated from 2013 to 2017 (5 years) was analyzed to identify patients older than 6 years. Complete cleft palate, incomplete cleft palate, and cleft of the soft palate were further stratified according to different Randall types. They were divided into 2 main types: primary palate repair only and primary palate repair with pharyngeal flap. Speech was assessed preoperatively and 12 months postoperatively by Pittsburgh weighted speech scale.

A total of 139 patients were analyzed. There were 78 males and 61 females. Their ages ranged from 6 to 60 years (mean age, 12.5 years). The overall preoperative speech score in palate repair-only group was 12.15, whereas the postoperative score was 7.32. In patients who underwent primary pharyngeal flap along with palate repair, the preoperative speech score was 11.3, and the postoperative score was 3.76.

In select group of patients who report late for palate repair, addition of pharyngeal flap along with the primary palate repair improves the speech outcome in all Randall groups.