Abstract
We evaluated the characteristics of 84 patients with submucous cleft palate who visited the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery clinic at the Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital between 1982 and 2012. The characteristics included gender, body weight at birth, age at diagnosis, chief complaint, occasion of diagnosis, other congenital anomalies, Calnan's triad, our treatment strategy, and mother's age at delivery. We diagnosed submucous cleft palate from soft palate muscle diastasis.
The results were as follows:
1) The subjects enrolled in this study were 42 males and 42 females.
2) The age at diagnosis ranged from 9 days postpartum to 49 years with an average of 4.6 years.
3) The most common chief complaint was speech symptoms in 59 patients (70.2%).
4) The most common occasions for diagnosis were pediatric clinics in 26 patients (31.0%) and dental clinics in 21 patients (25.0%).
5) The most common congenital anomaly was mental retardation in 28 patients (33.3%).
6) As to Calnan's triad of submucous cleft palate, all three findings were present in 62 patients (73.8%).
7) We suggested that palatoplasty, to normalize the primary anatomic abnormality, was the first step in improving velopharyngeal function. There were 60 patients (71.4%) in the surgically treated group, and 24 patients (28.6%) in the non-surgically treated group.
