Surgical Closure of the Cleft Palate Has a Transient Obstructive Effect on the Upper Airway in Children.

Objective: To prospectively investigate the occurrence of respiratory symptoms related to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) following primary palatoplasty in children with cleft palate (CP).

Method: Fifty-six nonsyndromic children presenting CP with a previously repaired cleft lip (CL) or without CL were assessed before and after palate repair. Twenty nonsyndromic children with isolated CL were analyzed as controls before and after lip repair. Respiratory symptoms were investigated preoperatively, and at early and late postoperative periods. Based on the parent reports of "difficulty of breathing (D), apnea events (A) and/or snoring (S) during sleep, a validated OSA index (1.42D + 1.41A + 0.71S - 3.83) was used to predict absence of OSA, possible OSA, and presence of OSA, at the 3 periods analyzed.

Results: Screening for OSA showed that the CP group exhibited an increased mean index at the early postoperative assessment, suggesting "possible OSA," and a higher frequency of snoring at the early and late postoperative assessments, as compared to the CL group ( < .05). Sleep apnea events were not reported.

Conclusions: Surgical closure of the palate has an obstructive effect on the upper airway in the short term, causing OSA-related respiratory symptoms, mostly transient. However, the high prevalence of snoring still observed in the long term indicate that children with a palatal cleft who undergo surgical repair are at risk for OSA. The results support the conclusion that OSA is underappreciated in this population.