“Subjects and Method:” The subjects comprised 20 Japanese patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate treated with either one-stage palatoplasty (by the push back procedure) using Hotz' plate until palatoplasty (one-stage w/Hotz'group, n¬= 15, M/F¬=10/5); or two-stage palatoplasty (by the Furlow technique for closing the soft palate as the first stage at 2 years of age) using Hotz' plate until palatoplasty (two-stage w/Hotz' group, n¬= 5, M/F=2/3). Cheiloplasty and Push back procedure had been undertaken within Plastic Surgery of the Hokkaido University Hospital and soft palate closure had been undertaken within Oral Surgery of the Hokkaido University Hospital.. Lateral cephalograms taken at the initial examination at orthodontic clinic of the Hokkaido University were evaluated. The values of cephalometric measurements depended on the age (6 or 7 years) and sex of the subjects. Therefore, these values were standardized using average values and standard deviations of Japanese subjects. Unpaired T-test was applied to estimate the difference between one-stage w/Hotz'group and two-stage w/Hotz' group cephalometric values.
“Results:” In two-stage w/Hotz' group, SNA angle was significantly bigger than that of one-stage w/Hotz' group. S-N length and ANS-PNS length in two-stage w/Hotz' group were longer than one-stage w/Hotz' group, although the differences were not statistically significant. There was no significant correlation between SNA angle and ANS-PNS length.
“Conclusion:” The results demonstrate that the two-stage palatoplasty has less suppressive effects on the maxillofacial growth than the one-stage palatoplasty.