Evaluation of nasal airflow resistance of operated unilateral cleft lip and palate surgery patients compared with skeletal class III individuals.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the nasal airflow resistance of operated unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) patients using the anterior rhinomanometry method compared with non-cleft skeletal class III individuals with isolated maxillary hypoplasia serving as the control group.

Material&methods: Sixteen UCLP patients who have undergone lip and palate reconstructions and alveolar cleft grafting but not advanced surgeries as the study group and 16 non-cleft skeletal class III participants as the control group (corresponded for age and sex to the study group) were included in this prospective study. All of the patients had class III occlusion due to isolated maxillary hypoplasia. Nasal airflow was measured with anterior rhinomanometry (in ml/sec) for each nostril separately. For evaluation of nasal side subgroups of the UCLP group for nasal resistance, the cleft sides and non-cleft sides of individuals were examined in two separate groups. The nasal side resistance of the control group was evaluated as the average of both nasal side resistances. The nasal resistances for nasal sides and total nasal resistance were measured in Pa/L/sec. The observed data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test used for normality, and the Student t-test and Mann Whitney U test used to determine the differences between the groups. P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: As the primary outcome of this study, it was found that both the cleft sides and non-cleft sides of the UCLP individuals had statistically significantly higher nasal resistance than the healthy skeletal class III control group (p < 0.05). It was revealed that the cleft side had more nasal resistance than the non-cleft side for both inspiration and expiration, but the results were not statistically significant (p = 0.41/p = 0.28).

Conclusion: The results showed that operated UCLP patients have nasal resistance and breathing problems, even when lip, palate, and alveolar cleft operations have been performed.