[Comparative rhinomanometric measurements in children with cleft palate after cleft closure with and without...

To answer the question if a cranially based pharyngeal flap in patients with cleft palate could affect nasal breathing, 49 children were examined by active anterior rhinomanometry with and without decongestion of the nasal mucosa. All patients were between 10 and 12 years old. In 18 of them palatoplasty with a cranially based pharyngeal flap was performed at the average age of 3.5 years. The control group consisted of 21 children who had been treated with an intravelar veloplasty without any flap at the age of 11-13 months. None of the patients had any appreciable narrowing of the nasal airways. Using the U test we found no significant difference between the inspiratory breathing volume of both groups. The difference between in- and expiratory volume in each group showed no significance either while the volumes we examined before and after decongestion differed significantly. Thus, we cannot conclude that the cranially based flap affects nasal breathing in cleft palate patients compared to those without any flap.