Aim: To report our initial experience and preliminary results of autologous free fat transfer to improve speech and hypernasality in patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) as a sequela of cleft lip and palate repair.
Material and methods: To date 2 patients with a mean age of 25 years were treated with this method. Both had initially received multiple procedures elsewhere for cleft lip and palate repair. We recorded the number of free fat transfer sessions, anatomical places of placement and volumes injected in-patient stay, occurrence or absence of complications and effectiveness of this operation in terms of clinical speech evaluation, functional velopharyngeal closure measurements and speech improvement percentage by an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist.
Results: Two autologous free fat transfer sessions per patient were performed. Mean hospitalization time was 1 day per operation. Following liposuction, autologous free fat was transferred to the following anatomical areas: a) Passavant's ridge, b) uvula, c) palatopharyngeal and palatoglossal folds. The volume of fat injected varied from 6.5 cc to 8 cc per session. Postoperative periods were uneventful for both cases in each session. On clinical examination, improvement in speech was noted as well as a reduction in hypernasality with an improvement in articulation and audibility of consonant words, which were also reported by the patients' relatives. This was confirmed by objective nasendoscopy velopharyngeal closure measurements, both during speech and deglutition.
Conclusion: Augmentation pharyngoveloplasty with autologous free fat transfer in patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency is a safe and innovative alternative, particularly for small to medium degrees of structural velophayngeal dysfunction.