title: Frequency of oronasal fistulae in complete cleft palate repair.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency of oro-nasal fistula in patients undergoing complete cleft palate repair by two flappalatoplasty.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case series.
  
  
  METHODS
  Department of Plastic Surgery, Services Hospital, Lahore, from January to December 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients admitted to the study place for repair of cleft palate after informed consent obtained were included. Cleft palate was repaired by two-flap palatoplasty, using Bardach technique. Patients were discharged on the second postoperative day and followed-up at third week postoperatively. During follow-up visits, fistulae formation and their sites were recorded on pre-designed proforma.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the total 90 patients, 40 patients (44.4%) were male and 50 patients (55.6%) were female. The mean age was 6.4 ± 5.7 years ranging from 9 months to 20 years. At third week follow-up, 5 patients (5.6%) had fistulae formation. Four patients (80%) had anterior fistulae and one patient (20%) had posterior fistula.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With two-flap palatoplasty Bardach procedure for repair of cleft palate, the complication of fistula formation was uncommon at 5.6%, provided the repair was tension free and multi-layered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, SIMS/Services Hospital, Lahore.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, SIMS/Services Hospital, Lahore.
authors.forename: Irfan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ishaq
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, SIMS/Services Hospital, Lahore.
authors.forename: Shoaib
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, SIMS/Services Hospital, Lahore.
authors.forename: Ghulam Qadir
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Fayyaz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009668:Nose Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016155:Oral Fistula / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult