Frequency of oronasal fistulae in complete cleft palate repair.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of oro-nasal fistula in patients undergoing complete cleft palate repair by two flappalatoplasty. STUDY DESIGN Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Plastic Surgery, Services Hospital, Lahore, from January to December 2013. METHODOLOGY Patients admitted to the study place for repair of cleft palate after informed consent obtained were included. Cleft palate was repaired by two-flap palatoplasty, using Bardach technique. Patients were discharged on the second postoperative day and followed-up at third week postoperatively. During follow-up visits, fistulae formation and their sites were recorded on pre-designed proforma. RESULTS Among the total 90 patients, 40 patients (44.4%) were male and 50 patients (55.6%) were female. The mean age was 6.4 ± 5.7 years ranging from 9 months to 20 years. At third week follow-up, 5 patients (5.6%) had fistulae formation. Four patients (80%) had anterior fistulae and one patient (20%) had posterior fistula. CONCLUSION With two-flap palatoplasty Bardach procedure for repair of cleft palate, the complication of fistula formation was uncommon at 5.6%, provided the repair was tension free and multi-layered.