Free flap closure of recurrent palatal fistula in the cleft lip and palate patient.

Recurrent palatal fistulas present a particularly vexing problem for the cleft surgeon. In this setting, the cycle of repair followed by breakdown results in increasing scar formation with associated soft tissue contracture and a resultant increase in fistula size. This pernicious cycle of events renders random local tissue transfers obsolete. As such, the cleft surgeon must look to tongue flaps or local axial pattern flaps as a means of bringing well-vascularized, pliable tissue into the defect. Although this approach has been the standard of care for the last few decades, we believe that the modern-day success rates of free tissue transfers (95%) make them a viable, one-stage means of closing these defects. In this report we present our clinical experience with recurrent palatal fistulas and highlight the effective use of the dorsalis pedis-first dorsal metatarsal artery free flap as a means of repair.