title: Palatal lifting prosthesis and velopharyngeal insufficiency: preliminary report.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our study aimed to highlight the effectiveness of palatal lift prosthesis in patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency with previous operated cleft palate.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was done undertaken January 2008 to December of 2009 in the Phoniatic unit of Alnoor Specialist Hospital, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Ten patients of ≥ 8 years to ≤ 10 years of age, who had previously undergone surgery for cleft palate, with or without cleft lip, with no other systemic illness and normal intelligent quotient level, were selected and managed by palatal lift prosthesis. All the study subjects were subjected to auditory perceptual speech evaluation for assessment of the degree of hypernasality, compensatory articulator mechanisms, glottal and pharyngeal articulation, audible nasal emission, facial grimace and overall intelligibility of speech. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 10 subjects whose mean ± standard deviation of age was (8.9±0.9). On auditory speech perceptual evaluation after prosthesis application, significant improvement was found in glottal articulation 6 (85.7%), p=0.04, facial grimace 6 (85.7%) p=0.04, hyper nasality 10 (10%) p=0.008, and speech intelligibility 9 (90%) p=0.008.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Young patients with repaired palatal cleft have significant improvement after application of palatal lift prosthesis.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Assuit University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ali Ibrahim
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Aboloyoun
authors.forename: Sahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghorab
authors.forename: Mian Usman
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Farooq
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D010159:Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014681:Velopharyngeal Insufficiency / Q000601:surgery*