The correction of cleft palate is the basic procedure of plastic surgery, but the results of the procedure has many problems such as underdevelopment of maxilla, inactive function of the cleft muscles, insufficient length of anteroposterior
diameter of
palate and so velopharyngeal incompetence. Recently, we have applied a relatively new technique named Furlow's double opposing Z-plasty for correction of various type of cleft palate. This procedure have many advantage than previous other
techniques,
including such as sufficient lengthening of soft palate, more anatomical reorientation of cleft muscles and minimized scar on hard palate. Although this procedure also might have limitation to satisfy all conditions, authors have concluded that
the
procedure must be a better one than previous many other modalities because of good normal speech and pronunciation, and we also expect the final results of minimal growth retardation of midfacial bone.
|