Incidence of Oronasal Fistulae and Velopharyngeal Insufficiency After Cleft Palate Repair: an Audit of 211 Children Born Between 1990 and 2004

Objective: We present an audit of primary cleft palate surgery at our unit, including rates of oronasal fistula development, speech outcomes, and rates of velopharyngeal insufficiency requiring secondary surgery.

Design: A retrospective study of patients with all cleft palate types, born between January 1990 and December 2004, who underwent primary palatoplasty at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand.

Patients: The study included 211 patients, collectively operated on by five different surgeons.

Results: The overall rate of true fistula development was 12.8% over a mean follow-up period of 4 years 10 months. The incidence of true fistulae that required surgical repair was 8.1%. Fistula rates were higher for more severe degrees of clefting but were not affected by gender or type of surgical repair. Overall, 31.8% of the study population had some degree of hypernasality following primary palatoplasty. Secondary surgery for velopharyngeal insufficiency was required in 13.3% of patients. Following surgical correction of velopharyngeal insufficiency, no patients were reported to have appreciable hypernasality and 21.7% were reported to have mild hypernasality, a result comparable to previously published audits. The requirement for secondary surgery was higher in patients with more severe clefts.

Conclusion: Our results are comparable to other recent studies. We believe that highly coordinated cleft care helps ensure such outcomes. These data provide a benchmark against which we can measure future performance in our attempts to improve outcomes of cleft repair.