A retro-prospective study\' of cleft palatal fistulas: An analy\'sis of prevalence, cause and location in C) perated cleft lip and palate cases

Abstract

One of the expected outcomes of palate repair is to achieve complete partition between nasal and oral cavity in addition to good speech. Any failure of achieving complete structural integrity of palate is labelled as an oronasal (palatal) fistula with persistent passage between oral and nasal cavity, it can occur at the anterior, posterior or mid palatal region The aim of the study is to assess prevalence of palatal fistula, cause of palatal fistula, location of palatal fistula and to derive a more relevant surgical technique. A retro-prospective study was conducted in operated cleft patients who showed presence of palatal fistula between the age group of 9 months to 7 years. The data collected included age, sex and type of cleft defecttype, width of cleft palatetype of surgery performed, size of fistula, location of fistula, duration of fistula formationpostoperatively 8 palatal fistula were included. The fistula was located mostly at the anterior palatal region (50%) and secondly at the mid palatal region (38%). The occurrence of fistula in operated cleft lip and palate cases was noted mostly after V-Y pushback palatoplasty followed by Von Langenbeck Among the surgical techniques used for palatoplasty, the Von Langenbeck is proven to be superior than V-Y pushback palatoplasty in accordance with the occurrence of palatal fistula. The anterior palate fistulas were the most common type in the study.