Effect of Veau-Wardill-Kilner type of cleft palate repair on long-term midfacial growth.

There is a common concern that the Veau-Wardill-Kilner type of cleft palate repair causes extensive denudation of the palate, resulting in inhibition of maxillary growth. The evidence for this belief is equivocal in the literature. The authors present some long-term results of this technique from a pure sample of nonsyndromic complete unilateral cleft lip and palate patients operated on by a single intermediate-volume cleft surgeon over a period of 25 years.