Lewin M L, Croft C B, Shprintzen R J
Plast Reconstr Surg. 1980 May;65(5):585-91. doi: 10.1097/00006534-198005000-00008.
With the help of nasopharyngoscopy, it was possible to delineate specific morphologic changes in the palates of patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency, without an overt cleft and without the triad of symptoms of submucous cleft palate, visible through the oral cavity. Such malformations are part of the broad spectrum of the faulty midline mesodermal fusion of the palate. This anomaly is aptly called occult submucous cleft palate, because it can only be detected by viewing the functioning palate from the nasal surface. The musculus uvulae is either absent or deficient and is frequently associated with some degree of muscular diastasis that does not involve the oral surface. Like the cleft of the secondary palate, the submucous cleft palate often occurs as part of a generalized syndrome of multiple malformations.
借助鼻咽镜检查，可以描绘腭咽功能不全患者腭部的特定形态变化，这些患者没有明显的腭裂，也没有通过口腔可见的黏膜下腭裂三联征症状。此类畸形是腭部中线中胚层融合缺陷这一广泛谱系的一部分。这种异常被恰当地称为隐匿性黏膜下腭裂，因为它只能通过从鼻腔表面观察腭部的功能来检测。悬雍垂肌要么缺失要么发育不全，并且常常伴有某种程度的肌肉分离，这种分离不涉及口腔表面。与继发腭裂一样，黏膜下腭裂常作为多种畸形的全身性综合征的一部分出现。
