Speech outcomes at 5 and 10 years of age after one-stage palatal repair with muscle reconstruction in children born with isolated cleft palate.

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Speech outcomes at 5 and 10 years of age after one-stage palatal repair with muscle reconstruction in children born with isolated cleft palate.

J Plast Surg Hand Surg. 2017 May 02;:1-10

Authors: Nyberg J, Neovius E, Lohmander A

Abstract
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate speech outcomes in children with clefts in the hard and/or soft palate only (CPH/CPS), in order to determine the prevalence of cleft speech characteristics, the change between 5 and 10 years of age, and the difference in occurrence between CPH and CPS.
METHODS: A consecutive series of 88 children born with CPH or CPS were included in a retrospective cohort. All participants were treated with one-stage palatal repair using a minimal incision technique with muscle reconstruction (mean age 13 months). Twelve children (14%) received a velopharyngeal flap. Cleft speech variables were rated at 5 and 10 years of age independently by three experienced external speech-language pathologists. Inter- and intra-rater agreements were determined, and the prevalence of cleft speech characteristics was calculated.
RESULTS: Moderate-to-severe hypernasality and weak pressure consonants were present in 5%-10% of the children at 5 years, with marginal but statistically significant improvement at 10 years of age. Frequently or always occurring audible nasal air leakage was detected in 20% of children at age 5, and increased to ∼35% of the children at 10 years. Ten per cent had compensatory articulation at age 5, and 25% demonstrated s-distortions, whereas few had these problems at age 10.
CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate low occurrence of compensatory articulation problems in this cohort, even by 5 years of age. The high presence of symptoms of velopharyngeal insufficiency at 10 years of age suggests a need for additional secondary velopharyngeal surgery.

PMID: 28460587 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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