Background One of the common craniofacial abnormalities is cleft lip and palate. Various surgical procedures have been employed to repair the cleft. However, immediate post-operative complications and formation of palatal fistula post surgery are common in surgical procedures. The study aims to compare the fistula rate, soft palate lengthening, and immediate complications of cleft palate repair of Furlow's Z-plasty and straight-line intravelar veloplasty techniques. Method Fifty Patients with isolated or unilateral cleft palate and lip with age between 9-18 months were randomly divided into two groups. One group underwent Furlow's Z-plasty while the other underwent straight-line intravelar veloplasty procedures. Post surgery, after discharge, the patients were followed up at 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months intervals. Immediate post-operative complications and fistula formation rate were compared along with other parameters like fistula width, duration of the procedure, intra-operative soft palate length, etc. Results Straight-line procedures took less time as compared to Furlow's Z-plasty. Bleeding (N=2, 8%) and dehiscence (N=1, 4%) of the wound were the immediate post-operative complications found in the straight-line group. Bleeding was also present in the Furlow's group (N=1, 4%). At 1-month follow-up, in the straight-line group (N=3, 12%) patients had fistula while (N=2, 8%) had minimal nasal regurgitation of liquids when compared to the Furlow's group. At 3-month follow-up, patients in the straight-line procedure group (three out of N=25, 12%) exhibited fistula, whereas in the Furlow's group, fistula occurrence was observed in one out of N=25 participants (4%). Intra-operative soft palate lengthening was 6.44 ± 0.768 mm and 1.64 ± 0.952 mm in the Furlow and straight-line groups, respectively. Conclusion Furlow's Z-plasty was observed to be the better surgical procedure for cleft repair as it had low immediate post-operative complications, and fistula development and had higher intra-operative soft palate lengthening.
Keywords: cleft lip and palate; fistula; furlow’s z-plasty; soft palate; straight-line intravelarveloplasty.
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