Closure of a large palatal fistula with maxillary segmental distraction osteogenesis in a cleft palate patient.

Various techniques have been proposed for the repair of palatal clefts. The first surgical closure technique that should be kept in mind is the use of adjacent mucosal flaps. When the palatal cleft is too large to close with adjacent mucosal flaps, distant flaps such as from the tongue or nasolabial region may be considered. This report presents a cleft patient who had previously undergone an unsuccessful palatal cleft repair with a tongue flap. The size of the large palatal fistula was reduced by approximating the segments to each other with maxillary anterior segmental distraction osteogenesis to make it more manageable using conventional mucosal flaps.