Abstract
Background and objective: The presence of a cleft palate introduces feeding difficulties, problems in speech development, and the possibility of impaired facial growth. Intravelar veloplasty aids to gain functional repair of the palate. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of intravelar veloplasty on the function of velum in primarily repaired palates. Methods: A review study was done in Rizgary Teaching Hospital, Erbil. Clinical and nasopharyngeal endoscopic examination was done for patients who underwent primary palatal repair with intravelar veloplasty between 2009 to 2014. The study assessed the velopharyngeal port for adequacy of closure, hypernasality of speech, and oronasal fistula rate. Results: This study included 47 patients. The mean age of patients ± SD was 3.4±4 years (range 1- 20 years) at time of repair. Major improvement in intelligibility and production of pharyngeal sounds and velopharyngeal closure was noticed when using intravelar veloplasty in palatal repair. There was a significant association between defect type and degree of velopharyngeal port closure (P = 0.009), i.e., inadequate velopharyngeal closure was more common in the complete cleft palate. Conclusion: This study showed that intravelar veloplasty helps to improve the velopharyngeal closure and oropharyngeal sounds production. The poor velopharyngeal closure is more likely related to wide, complete cleft palate.
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