Preoperative velopharyngeal closure ratio correlates with Furlow palatoplasty outcome among patients with nonsyndromic submucous cleft palate.

This study aimed to explore the preoperative factors that are potentially associated with the outcome of Furlow palatoplasty in treating nonsyndromic submucous cleft palate (SMCP). In this study, we reviewed patients with nonsyndromic SMCP who received Furlow palatoplasty between 2008 and 2017 at our department. A comprehensive panel of preoperative variables was included for analyses including gender, age at operation, concurrence of cleft lip, preoperative hypernasality, nasal emission, velopharyngeal closure ratio (VCR), velopharyngeal closure pattern, velum and pharyngeal wall movement, presence of Passavant Ridge and articulation error. The improvement of velopharyngeal function was considered a good outcome. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to screen the potential predictors of the postoperative velopharyngeal function. Multivariate regression analyses indicated preoperative VCR as the only factor that was significantly associated with surgical outcome (p = 0.025). The receiver operating characteristic curve and Youden index indicated that VCR>52.5% was the cutoff value for predicting preferable postoperative velopharyngeal function (OR, 0.240; 95% IC, 0.059-0.979; p = 0.047). In conclusion, Furlow palatoplasty was recommended for non-syndromic SMCP patient with preoperative VCR>52.5% as the primary surgical treatment.