Early maxillary growth in complete cleft lip, alveolus and palate patients following Widmaier-Perko's, or a modified Furlow's technique of soft palate repair

Introduction: The aim was to study the differences in early maxillary growth following the use of two techniques for soft palate repair in complete cleft lip, alveolus and palate patients. Material and methods: Out of sixty-four primary soft palate repairs, two model samples (one of each) having been matched (gender, age, cleft type, maxillary anterior and posterior width at time of soft palate repair) were selected from the groups treated according either to Furlow or to Widmaier-Perko. The Wilcoxon Test for small samples was used to test for differences. Results: At the age of 4 years, posterior transverse cleft size was significantly smaller by 2.26 mm on average (SD 2.23) in the Furlow sample. The posterior maxillary segment had grown sagitally 1.5 mm (SD 0.76) more in the Furlow sample. At the age of 4 years, all other parameters, including inter-canine point and inter-tuberosity distances did not significantly differ between the two samples. Conclusion: Transverse posterior growth was not statistically different between the samples and seemed to be within normal limits in both. There was more sagittal growth in the posterior maxillary segment in the Furlow sample, possibly related to less fibrotic contracture in the posterior hard palate and the soft palate. The transverse posterior cleft size was more reduced in the Furlow sample. This could not be correlated with the techniques chosen to close the hard palate cleft at the age of 4 years.