Cleft palate is one of the most frequent of the serious congenital malformations and commonly causes swallowing difficulty, speech impairment, and hearing impairment. Hearing problem in patients with cleft palate is related to the various factors including the eustachian tube malfunction. Therefore, in this study the authors have measured pure tone audiogram, impedance audiogram, and otoscopic finding before and 1 month after the operation on 24 cleft palate patients(48 ears) who have been performed palatoplasty at the Department of Plastic Surgery, Seoul Red Cross Hospital during from June 1985 to March 1986. The results were as follows : 1) In 48 ears, the change of the hearing level in 1 month after the operation, as compared with the hearing level before the operation, revealed hearing gain in 41 ears(85.4%) and no change in 7 ears(14.6%). 2) There was no change of the type in tympanogram before and 1 month after the operation. The tympanogram in 45 ears, except 3 ears with perforated T.M., revealed type A in 4 ears(8.9%), type B in 39 ears(86.7%), and type C in 2 ears(4.4%). 3) There was no change of the otoscopic finding before and 1 month after the operation. The otoscopic finding in 48 ears revealed normal T.M. in 7 ears(14.6%), retracted T.M. in 25 ears(52.1%), fluid level in 13 ears(27.1%), and perforated T.M. in 3 ears(6.2%).
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