Upper airway obstruction after superiorly based pharyngeal flap proced
ures for the treatment of velopharyngeal insufficiency is described in
this series of 32 flaps performed in 29 patients at our institution b
etween 1979 and 1993, A high incidence of upper airway obstruction sym
ptoms (38%) occurred in the early postoperative period but resolved in
all but 2 patients within 5 months. None of the patients required fla
p revision or other procedures for relief of upper airway obstruction,
Velopharyngeal insufficiency was improved or completely eliminated in
87% of patients, Significant residual velopharyngeal insufficiency in
13% of patients was treated successfully in all flap revision cases,
Race, gender, age at closure, and associated craniofacial anomalies di
d not correlate with upper airway obstruction or with the efficacy of
treatment for velopharyngeal insufficiency, However, patients with tra
nsient postoperative upper airway obstruction were only half as likely
to suffer residual postoperative velopharyngeal insufficiency. The in
verse relationship between velopharyngeal insufficiency and upper airw
ay obstruction (p = .008) suggests that the surgeon may sometimes need
to accept some transient upper airway obstruction to achieve correcti
on of velopharyngeal insufficiency.