• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.310-319
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• 2006

Submucosal type cleft palate is subdivision of the cleft palate. It is very difficult to find submucosal cleft, because when we exam submucosal type cleft palate patients, it seems to be normal. But in fact, there are abnormal union of palatal muscles of submucosal type cleft palate patients. Because of late detection, the treatment - for example, the operation or the speech therapy - for the submucosal type cleft palate patient usually becomes late. Some patients visited our hospital due to speech disorder nevertheless normal intraoral appearance. After precise intraoral examination, we found out submucosal cleft palate. We evaluated the speech before and after surgery of these patients. In this study, we want to find the objective characteristics of submucosal type cleft palate patients, comparing with the normal and the complete cleft palate patients. Experimental groups were 10 submucosal type cleft palate patients and 10 complete cleft palate patients who got the operation in our hospital. And, the controls were 10 normal person. The sentence patterns using in this study were simple 5 vowels. Using CSL program we evaluated the Formant, Bandwidth. We analized the spectral characteristics of speech signals of 3 groups, before and after the operation. In most cases, the formant scores were higher in experimental groups (complete cleft palate group and submucosal type cleft palate group) than controls. There were small differences when speeching /a/, /i/, /e/ between experimental groups and control groups, large differences when speeching /o/, /u/. After surgery the formant scores were decreased in experimental groups (complete cleft palate group and submucosal type cleft palate group). In bandwidth scores, there were no significant differences between experimental groups and controls.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2005

Submucosal type cleft palate is a kind of cleft palate. A submucosal cleft may result in shortening of the anteroposterior dimension of the hard or soft palates or both. The increased distance along with the lack of muscle connection in the soft palate usually accounts for the lack of palatopharyngeal function in patients with submucosal cleft. Resonance disorders which is found in cleft patients show hypernasality or hyponasality. Many cases of submucosal type cleft palate patients visit our clinics due to hypernasality. In this study, resonance disorders was evaluated through nasalance test. Experimental group was composed of submucosal type cleft palate patients. The patients were treated by a so-called combined therapy, i.e., operation and speech training. To observe the changing pattern by surgery, nasalance test was carried out one time before surgery and three times after surgery. Nasometer II was used as a examination. The questionaire was filled with single vowels & diphthongs. The mean nasalance score of the child was significantly lower than that of the adult at every vowel. An early age at operation (under 10 years) was that a better functional result was achieved with patients. The mean nasalance score of /i/ was highest and that of /a/ was the lowest. The result of corrective surgery in selected cases has achieved improvement in all cases. Hypernasality has been consistently diminished. he operation.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.152-154
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• 2007

Submucosal type cleft palate is subdivision of cleft palate. Because of late detection, the treatment - for example, the operation or the speech therapy - for the submucosal type cleft palate patient usually late. In this study, we want to find the objective characteristics of submucosal type cleft palate patient, comparing with the normal and the complete cleft palate patient. Experimental groups are 10 submucosal type cleft palate patients who got the operation in our hospital, 10 complete cleft palate patients. And, 10 normals as control group. The sentence patterns using in this study is simple 5 vowels. Using CSL program we evaluate the Formant, Bandwidth. We analized the spectral characteristics of speech signals of 3 groups, before and after the operation.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2007

The classic triad of diagnostic signs of submucosal cleft palate which may be present are: 1) bifid uvula 2) short palate with no muscle in the midline and 3) hard palate with a submucous notching defect in the posterior midline. The treatment of submucous cleft palate are V-Y push back palatorrhaphy, and superior based pharyngoplasty implant in the posterior pharynx. The best speech results were in those children operated upon in the younger age group (especially at or before 2 years of age), thus pointing up the importance of early diagnosis.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-50
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• 2012

A submucous cleft palate(SMCP) is characterized by a midline deficiency or lack with/without incorrect positioning of muscular tissues in the soft palate, and by a bony defect in the midline or the center of the hard palate. Velopharyngeal incompetence(VPI) related to this SMCP has been managed by various surgical and prosthetic techniques. Because the individual diagnosis and treatment of SMCP patients was not easy to the speech pathologist and to the maxillofacial reconstructive surgeons, and for the better understanding and for the ideal approaches to the SMCP patients, we reviewed several recent articles about grading system in the SMCP caused by VPI, and summarized in this review article.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.188-192
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• 2022

Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is a phenomenon that can occur due to anatomical or neurological causes of the soft palate. VPI can make the patient difficult to articulate through hypernasality and nasal emission. There has been needed the customized treatment, as VPI can occur for many causes. We present the case of 21-year-old male who took palate plastic surgery 20 years ago for congenital submucosal cleft palate. As he had poor contraction of both lateral side of velopharynx, he was diagnosed with coronal type VPI. Through sphincter pharyngoplasty, he can obtain improvement of articulation accuracy. We would like to share this challenged case.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.421-433
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• 2002

In order to elucidate the pathogenesis of cleft lip and palate, first of all, it is necessary to understand the developmental mechanisms of growth factors and extracellular matrix proteins in the tissues of cleft lip and palate. We have performed immunohistochemical studies on human cleft lip and palate tissues to elucidate the pathogenetic implications of cleft lip and palate. 16 specimens from postnatal human cleft lip and palate subjects and 17 specimens from autopsy of prenatal human cleft lip and palate were fixed in 10% buffered formalin, embedded in paraffin. The sections were routinely stained by hematoxylin and eosin, also stained by PAS, and followed by immunohistochemical stainings using the antiseras of growth factors and extracellular matrix proteins such as PCNA, S-100, c-erb-B2, MMP-3, MMP-10, HSP-70, transglutaninase-C, E-cadherin, VEGF, vWF. Both the prenatal and postnatal specimens of cleft lip and palate showed dysplastic proliferation of the basal cell layer, increased infiltration of melanocytes into mucosal epithelium, sebaceous gland hyperplasia ingrowing into the muscular tissue of lip and palate, and fatty infiltration into the submucosal deep connective tissue. The strong reactions of MMP-3 and HSP-70 were detected in the tissues of cleft lip and palate, especially increased in degenerating muscle bundles, while the immunostainings of PCNA and c-erb-B2 were weakly positive in the tissues of cleft lip and palate. These data suggest that the retrogressive tissue degeneration around the cleft areas persistently exist during the prenatal and postnatal period after cleft formation, and the sebaceous gland hyperplasia and fatty infiltration with the intense expression of MMP-3 and HSP-70 is closely related to the muscular degeneration around the cleft area.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2008

In cleft palate patient, characteristic of speech disorder is the resonance disorder result from velopharyngeal incompetence. Clinically VPI caused by congenital factor as congenital palatal incompetence, submucosal cleft palate, and caused by acquired factor as CNS damage, tumor, palatal palsy. The clinicians more concerned about the speech disorders after cleft palate surgery rather than language pathologist. The resonance disorder devided for hypernasality, hyponasality and nasal emission, but as a rule, hypernasality is typical phenomenon of the resonance disorder. Traditionally clinicians and language pathologists evaluated four-stage or five-stage of hypernasality by subjective assessment. Although language pathologist is well-trained, results of the language level should be different. In late 1980s, Kay Elemetrics Corp. developed nasometer that objective nasalance identified with well-trained language pathologist and originate from nasometer Tonar I and II were developed by Fletcher. Therefore objective nasalance test was possible, the nasometer used in hospital, collage and speech clinic both and home and abroad. Standardization of the cleft palate speech assessment must be settled without delay because of different character result in different language and different assessment results by dialect in same language. In our study, we provide the data base for the standardization of cleft palate speech assessment which through report of objective assessment method, speech therapy effects and problems result in interdisciplinary teamwork by nasometer use in treatment of cleft palate patient.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.144-148
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• 2006

The velopharyngeal dysfunction usually occurs in patients with previous operation of the cleft palate or with submucosal cleft palate. In case of velopharyngeal dysfunction without cleft palate, no study has been made when it comes to operative method and postoperative results. Here, we would like to present the operative methods and the postoperative results with the cases we've experienced. This study is based on seven cases of velopharyngeal dysfunction without cleft palate from 1999 to 2004. Analysis of age, sex, etiology, operative methods, satisfaction rate and speech evaluation was done. The patients were 3 males and 4 females, with an age ranged from 10 to 28 at the time of surgery. The follow-up period was more than six months. One case had bifid uvula, another had atypical anomaly in palate, and five cases had no anatomical abnormality. The palatal lengthening was done on one patient, the levator muscle repositioning on another patient and to the rest of them, the superiorly based posterior pharyngeal flap was done. It was difficult to determine the etiology of the velopharyngeal dysfunction without cleft palate. The speech improvement and the satisfaction rate of the patients and parents were diverse. Although the authors had a problem with statistical analysis between the operative age and the speech improvement, it was reasonable to perform a surgical operation because postoperative speech improvement was observed in most cases regardless of age. There is little statistical correlation, but significantly higher outcomes were observed in palatal lengthening and levator muscle repositioning than in pharyngeal flap.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.41
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• pp.19.1-19.6
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• 2019

Background: The submucous cleft palate (SMCP) is a type of cleft palate that may result in velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). Palate muscles completely separate oral and nasal cavities by closing off the velopharynx during functional processes such as speech or swallow. Also, hypernasality may arise from anatomical or neurological abnormalities in these functions. Treatments of this issue involve a combination of surgical intervention, speech aid, and speech therapy. This case report demonstrates successfully treated VPI resulted from SMCP without any surgical intervention but solely with speech aid appliance and speech therapy. Case presentation: A 13-year-old female patient with a speech disorder from velopharyngeal insufficiency that was caused by a submucous cleft palate visited to our OMFS clinic. In the intraoral examination, the patient had a short soft palate and bifid uvula. And the muscles in the palate did not contract properly during oral speech. She had no surgical history such as primary palatoplasty or pharyngoplasty except for tonsillectomy. And there were no other medical histories. Objective speech assessment using nasometer was performed. We diagnosed that the patient had a SMCP. The patient has shown a decrease in speech intelligibility, which resulted from hypernasality. We decided to treat the patient with speech aid (palatal lift) along with speech therapy. During the 7-month treatment, hypernasality measured by a nasometer decreased and speech intelligibility became normal. Conclusions: Surgery remains the first treatment option for patients with velopharyngeal insufficiencies from submucous cleft palates. However, there were few reports about objective speech evaluation pre- or post-operation. Moreover, there has been no report of non-surgical treatment in the recent studies. From this perspective, this report of objective improvement of speech intelligibility of VPI patient with SMCP by non-surgical treatment has a significant meaning. Speech aid can be considered as one of treatment options for management of SMCP.