Pharyngeal flap and facial growth.

The present study addressed two questions. Does the skeletal pattern of children with cleft lip and palate who require a pharyngeal flap differ from children with similar clefts who do not? Following a pharyngeal flap does the pattern of facial development change? Skeletal form prior to pharyngeal flap was compared using cephalograms in 52 subjects with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) who subsequently received a superiorly based pharyngeal flap and 52 UCLP controls matched for sex and age. The flap group had slightly smaller maxillary length and anterior face heights and greater mandibular protrusion (p less than 0.5) before the pharyngeal flaps were done. Preoperative and five year (minimum) postoperative records were analyzed for 29 early pharyngeal flap cases and 29 matched controls. Subsequent growth demonstrated some assimilation of the flap group with the controls, but repeated measures analysis of variance failed to identify any important differences in growth after pharyngeal flap, suggesting that the superiorly based pharyngeal flap carries no systematic risk of interference with facial growth.