Cleft Palate Population Research Articles

Otolaryngologic and Audiologic Findings in a Cleft Palate Population

Otolaryngologic and Audiologic Findings in a Cleft Palate Population

Acoustic impedance measurements in cleft-palate children.

Clinical acoustic impedance findings in a group of 40 children with cleft lip or palate and a group of 20 noncleft children are presented. The cleft subjects exhibited a high incidence of hearing loss and aural pathology. The data suggest that impedance measurements lend pertinent supportive information to routine puretone audiometric testing in the detection and management of middle-ear disease in the cleft-palate population.

Hearing in cleft palate patients.

Permanent hearing loss is present in more than 50% of the adult cleft palate population. Serous otitis media related to eustachian-tube dysfunction is present from birth in over 90% of infants with cleft palates and leads to middle ear changes responsible for permanent hearing loss in adulthood. Early and successful closure of the cleft palate is associated with decreased adult hearing loss and secondary surgery for hypernasal cleft palate is also associated with a decreased incidence. Hard-of-hearing patients have a tendency to remain more hypernasal than their normal-hearing peers and are less likely to respond to conventional speech therapy.

A comparison of air-flow and cephalometric techniques for evaluation of normal and cleft palate patients. Part I

Thirty-seven cleft palate patients and fourteen normal siblings were studied for palatopharyngeal competency by cephalometric and air-flow techniques. Forty-two other cleft palate patients were studied with air-flow techniques only. The data for each test for all patients were plotted to determine the distribution of the measured variables. These plots showed a cleft palate population which had wide ranges of ability to perform the various tests. The individual data from the various tests were correlated against the cephalometric data. The velum-to-pharyngeal-wall measurement at rest seemed to give the best correlation with the air-flow data. The data revealed that the nasal anemometer is an excellent clinical tool for measuring nasal air leakage.

An audiologic and otorhinologic study of cleft-lip and cleft-palate cases. II. Otorhinologic evaluation.

Not least among the problems of the cleft-lip and cleft-palate person is the one of hearing loss. However, while this particular deficiency has received recognition, little is known about the nature of the hearing loss. Previous reports in the literature have presented ideas about the problem of hearing loss in the cleft-lip and cleft-palate persons. Gaines,1in her study of the problem, postulated that cleft-palate children were prone to middle-ear pathologies because of the exposure of the Eustachian tube to pathological insult or because of irregularities in the tubes. She concluded that there is a greater incidence of hearing loss in cleft-palate children and that the basis for the hearing loss was dysfunction of the Eustachian tube because of anatomical deviations of the related musculature. In the study by Gannon*the relationship of several surgical variables to hearing loss in a cleft-palate population was examined. The rationale for

An audiologic and otorhinologic study of cleft-lip and cleft-palate cases. I. Audiologic evaluation.

Not least among the problems of the cleft-lip and cleft-palate person is the one of hearing loss. However, while this particular deficiency has received recognition, little is known about the nature of the hearing loss. Previous reports in the literature have presented ideas about the problem of hearing loss in the cleft-lip and cleft-palate persons. Gaines,1in her study of the problem, postulated that cleft-palate children were prone to middle-ear pathologies because of the exposure of the Eustachian tube to pathological insult or because of irregularities in the tubes. She concluded that there is a greater incidence of hearing loss in cleft-palate children and that the basis for the hearing loss was dysfunction of the Eustachian tube because of anatomical deviations of the related musculature. In the study by Gannon*the relationship of several surgical variables to hearing loss in a cleft-palate population was examined. The rationale for