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Surgical Management of Velopharyngeal Dysfunction

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Cleft Lip and Palate

34.6 Summary

There are many causes of impaired velopharyngeal valving that may occur in combination both in the presence and in the absence of overt or submucosal clefts of the palate. Moreover, there is a wide spectrum of severity of velopharyngeal dysfunction, and it is important to understand that such may be but one of several communication disorders that may contribute to impaired speech intelligibility in any given patient. Optimization of surgical outcome in each patient, therefore, requires both precision in diagnosis and careful selection of surgical technique.

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Kirschner, R.E., Ruotolo, R.A. (2006). Surgical Management of Velopharyngeal Dysfunction. In: Berkowitz, S. (eds) Cleft Lip and Palate. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-30020-1_43

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