RESUMEN
Two-flap palatoplasty is commonly used to treat cleft palate defects, but only a few reports on outcomes have been published in the literature. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 257 cases of cleft palate treated with two-flap palatoplasty at a single center in Greece over a 13-year period. Our outcomes data included surgical complication rates, the results of speech assessments, midface development, and other parameters. We found a low rate of short- and long-term complications that required revision surgery, such as symptomatic fistula (5.4%) and velopharyngeal insufficiency (5.3%). Speech outcomes in relation to intelligibility, hypernasality, and nasal emissions were satisfactory in 70 to 86% of patients. Dental arch relationships, as estimated by the 5-Year-Olds Index, were judged to be either good or excellent in 62% of those evaluated. A considerable proportion of patients (45%) who had otitis media with effusion experienced a spontaneous resolution without the use of tympanostomy tubes 2 to 8 months after their operation. We conclude that two-flap palatoplasty is an effective procedure that warrants further attention. We describe the surgical technique in detail. Our technique includes a modified intravelar veloplasty that incorporates near-total muscle retropositioning.
Asunto(s)
Fisura del Paladar/cirugía , Procedimientos Quirúrgicos Ortognáticos/métodos , Colgajos Quirúrgicos , Adolescente , Niño , Preescolar , Humanos , Resultado del TratamientoRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the morbidity and the short and long-term effectiveness of tonsillotomy (partial tonsillectomy) performed with scissors compared with conventional cold knife (total) tonsillectomy. METHODS: We conducted a 2-year prospective non-randomized study at a tertiary children's hospital. One thousand and twenty-three children were recruited (243 in the tonsillotomy and 780 in the tonsillectomy group). Age, sex, weight, and time of operation, immediately post-operative complications and pain were recorded. Eighteen months after the operation data on weight, parents' satisfaction and recurrence of obstructed symptoms was obtained in 60 randomly selected children of each group. RESULTS: Post-operative complications rates were very low in both groups and their differences did not reach statistical significance. However, tonsillotomies were significantly better than tonsillectomies in relation to post-operative pain the 1st (P<0.001) and the 7th (P<0.001) post-operative day, and lasted an average of 2.5 min less. Concerning long-term effects, both methods resulted in an increase of patients' weight without the difference in weight increase be statistically significant. In addition, parents' satisfaction as well as oral malodour do not seem to differ significantly. Finally, although twice as many children in the tonsillotomy group had a recurrence of snoring compared to tonsillectomy group, only in about half of them was the problem regarded significant enough by their parents to require medical consultation or reoperation. At the end, an estimated 3.5% of the tonsillotomy group was offered a tonsillectomy in the long term. CONCLUSION: This trial shows that scissors tonsillotomy in combination with an adenoidectomy is a viable therapeutic option with less immediate post-operative morbidity than tonsillectomy in young children whose sleep disorder breathing is due to a combination of tonsilar and adenoid hypertrophy. However, parents should be informed of the possibility of regrowth and reoperation.