Nasopharyngeal characteristics in children with cleft lip and palate.

Cephalometric assessment of the nasopharynx and its adjacent structures was carried out in two experimental groups of 5-year-old male patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate. The first group included individuals who had not had surgery, and the second was comprised of individuals who were at least 1 year postpalatoplasty with primary pharyngeal flap. They were compared with a control group of boys of comparable average age who did not have clefts. Both groups of patients with clefts showed a reduction of the nasopharyngeal bony framework related to the posterior position and decreased posterior height of the maxilla without hypertrophy of the adenoids. The smaller nasopharyngeal airway was consistent with the reduction of the size of the bony nasopharynx. There was shortening of the anterior cranial base located in the region of the middle cranial fossa. The height of the body of the sphenoid bone was reduced, but the angle of the cranial base was within normal limits.