Speech Characteristics Associated with the Furlow Palatoplasty as Compared with Other Surgical Techniques

Abstract

Reported here are the results of a retrospective study of the speech outcome for 63 cleft subjects who had Furlow repairs compared with 20 subjects who had other procedures. The two groups of children were similar in cleft type, sex, and race. The same two surgeons repaired the palates in both groups, and the same two speech pathologists with high reliability examined the children at least 5 years postoperatively using the Pittsburgh Weighted Values for Speech Symptoms Associated with VPI (velopharyngeal incompetence). Subjects who had had Furlow repairs were superior on measures of hypernasality, articulation, and total speech scores; and fewer pharyngeal flaps were required by Furlow subjects. These findings suggest the need for randomized, double-blind investigations comparing outcome of the Furlow procedure with the intravelar veloplasty, the V-Y pushback, and other specified procedures.

Furlow's Palatoplasty for Cleft Palate Repair

“…By avoiding a straight line incision, the zigzag incision in a rapidly moving organ like the soft palate gives better functional results [4,5,7]. The rate of fistulae formation is less than in other procedures [6,[13][14][15].Palatal competence is better and rates of VPI were much less in all studies reported [6,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. It has also been offered as a surgery for VPI [12,20].…”

“…It has also been offered as a surgery for VPI [12,20]. Large raw areas of the hard palate are not left exposed as in VKW procedures, scar formation and maxillary retrusion are minimal [6,7,13,14,19].Speech results in all reported series are excellent [6,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15]17] and hearing loss is an infrequent problem [6,7,14]. The drawbacks of this procedure include a demanding and time consuming surgery [4][5][6][7].…”

Die Gaumenplastik nach Furlow – Erfahrungen an 114 konsekutiven Fällen

“…Inzwischen wird die Methode allgemein positiv beurteilt und als echte Alternative zu herkömmlichen Verfahren der Palatoplastik angesehen [8]. Sie ermöglicht insbesondere die Korrektur velopharyngealer Insuffizienz [2,11,15], indem sie ausgezeichnete Sprachergebnisse gewährleistet [8,13,16]. Die Operation ist sogar ausreichend "robust", um als Korrektur("Rettungs"-)operation in Fällen des Verlusts eines velopharyngealen Lappens zu dienen [5].…”

Fala em indivíduos com fissura labiopalatina após a palatoplastia primária pelas técnicas de Furlow e von Langenbeck

“…McWilliams et al (1996), ao comentarem sobre os vários procedimentos cirúrgicos primários para correção da fissura labiopalatina relataram que "se uma técnica tem uma vantagem demonstrável sobre a outra e resulta em uma fala sem alterações e significativamente melhor, vale a pena considerar o uso desta técnica".…”