Tongue flap repair of oro-nasal fistulae in cleft palate patients. A review of 20 patients

At University College Hospital, between 1980 and 1985, sixty patients with cleft lip and palate deformity underwent transpalatal maxillary advancement for the correction of mid-face hypoplasia. One third of these patients subsequently required closure of oro-nasal fistulae and we present the results of these twenty cases where anteriorly based dorsal tongue flaps were used. Seventeen were successful and the causes of three failures are discussed.