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Passavant’s Ridge

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Videofluoroscopic Studies of Speech in Patients with Cleft Palate

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Abstract

Passavant’s ridge is a much misunderstood and controversial pharyngeal structure. In 1863 and 1869, Gustav Passavant (1,2) reported his observations of a transverse bulge on the posterior pharyngeal wall in a patient with an unrepaired cleft palate. Passavant believed this bulge to be essential for normal speech:

This “cross-roll” is of the greatest importance for speech; it has nothing to do with cleft palate and is a physiological process. For every word we speak it is an essential condition for normal pronunciation as it produces closure of the palate; otherwise a nasal pronunciation occurs (2).

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    M. Leon Skolnick M.D. (Professor of Radiology)

  2. Department of Communications, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ellen R. Cohn Ph.D. (Instructor)

Authors
  1. M. Leon Skolnick M.D.
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  2. Ellen R. Cohn Ph.D.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Skolnick, M.L., Cohn, E.R. (1989). Passavant’s Ridge. In: Videofluoroscopic Studies of Speech in Patients with Cleft Palate. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8874-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8874-6_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8876-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8874-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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