Successful sphincter pharyngoplasty for speech correction in cleft patient

A 12-year-old boy born with isolated cleft palate was brought to our hospital by his parents for surgical speech correction. He was previously operated elsewhere multiple times for his cleft palate defect. He had a nasal twang in his speech. This condition is called velopharyngeal incompetence that occurs in cleft children due to escape of air through the nose while speaking.

Maxillofacial Surgeon Dr. S.M. Balaji expertly performed a dynamic sphincter pharyngoplasty surgery wherein the palato-pharyngeal muscles were criss-crossed to correct the velopharyngeal incompetence. The video shows the new dynamic velopharyngeal sphincter action and a positive suction test indicating successful correction of velopharyngeal incompetence.  

During procedure soft palate muscles were surgically aligned

Surgical repositioning of the palato-pharyngeal muscles to correct VPI

Criss-cross correction of the soft palate musculature to enhance the speech