[Value of the use of a vicryl-collagen tape for the treatment of cleft palate. Experimental study in dogs].

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bone forming capacity of a Vicryl/collagene tape, placed in a defect of the palatal bone. In order to decrease the rate of bucco-nasal fistulaes after primary closure of a cleft palate, the authors carried out an experiment on dogs. First of all, we had to demonstrate the good tolerance of the tape in the buccal cavity.

[Closure of residual clefts of the palate. Indications and technic].

Residual defects of the palate, a possible complication of early surgery in the view of MALEK and PSAUME, should be closed as early as possible in order to avoid compromising normal acquisition of language while respecting bony growth. The technique described (staphylorrhaphy under cover of a rigid compression arch) takes both these requirements into account.

[Treatment of labio-palate clefts].

The reeducation of the patient afflicted with an unilateral or bilateral complete cleft of the lip and/or palate (CLP) needs many years of treatment. A new approach to the sequence and timing repair is based on a very sound concept of the function of the tongue in new-born which is disturbed in CLP and thus deviates the swallowing. The tongue must be educated early in order to assure its physiological pressure towards the anterior palate during swallowing.