Cleft palate repair at 3 to 7 months of age

We report the speech outcome in 90 children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who underwent soft palate repair either between 3 and 7 mont hs of age (n = 40) or later than 7 months of age (n = 50). In all patients, palatoplasty was performed by one of two experienced surgeons using a modi fication of the Furlow technique, and speech evaluations were conducted usi ng the Pittsburgh Weighted Values for Speech Symptoms Associated with Velop haryngeal Incompetence by two speech pathologists with high inter-rater rel iability. There were no differences between the groups with respect to reso nance, nasal air emission, and articulation. Velopharyngeal function, as me asured by the total speech score, was similar between the two groups of pat ients, as were the rates of secondary pharyngoplasty. These results suggest that very early closure of the soft palate may not offer significant benef it over repair later in infancy with respect to speech outcome.