Bilateral nasal mucoperiosteal flaps in bilateral cleft palate repair

A simple technique is presented which uses bilateral nasal mucoperiosteal flaps to cover the raw surface on the nasal side of a Wardill-type pushback procedure for cleft palate repair. The flaps provide the additional tissue necessary for this coverage in bilateral cleft repairs. Primary healing was seen in 18 patients, and follow-up speech evaluation in 15 patients demonstrated no nasality in 10, mild sporadic nasality in four, and moderate to severe hypernasality in one.