The Effect of Zigzag Palatoplasty on the Repair of Cleft Palate and its Comparative Study With Sommerlad Palatoplasty and the Double Opposing Z Palatoplasty

PURPOSE: At present, there are a variety of surgical methods for cleft palate repair, the authors first created the zigzag plasty of nasal mucosa musculature. The method is characteristic of better repair effect for anatomy and function of palatopharyngeal compared with the traditional method. METHODS: Fifty patients with cleft palate were involved in this study, and treated with 3 different operative methods, respectively: zigzag palatoplasty for the repair of nasal mucosa myometrium (n = 17), Sommerlad palatoplasty (n = 18) and the double opposing Z palatoplasty (n = 15), respectively. The length of soft palate (the distance from incisor to the tip of uvula) and the distance from uvula to posterior pharynx before and after operation were selected as outcome index. The post-operative speech intelligibility, nasal resonance, and nasal leaking were also evaluated. RESULTS: The results showed that the lengths of soft palate were increased by 14.50%, 13.23%, 10.10% with the zigzag palatoplasty, the double opposing Z palatoplasty and Sommerlad palatoplasty, respectively; the distances from the vertical tip to the posterior pharyngeal wall of 3 kinds of operation were reduced by 49.03%, 47.78%, 49.03%, respectively. The comparison of speech intelligibility, nasal resonance and nasal resonance assessment between/among groups were not significant. CONCLUSION: The authors' research showed that the effect of zigzag palatoplasty works well in the repair of nasal mucosa myometrium and can be used as an optional method for functional repair of cleft palate.