THE REPAIR OF CLEFT PALATES AFTER UNSUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS

Abstract

If one is a young man and somewhat of a surgical optimist, a review of the measures used in operations on cleft palates is apt to temper one's enthusiasm somewhat, and one may entertain a great many doubts as to the probability of surgical intervention ever attaining its ultimate goal—the ideal functional result—so far as the cleft palate is concerned. In the past many of the great minds in surgery, as a glance at the names which represent the real milestones of progress will reveal, have wrestled ardently with the problem of cleft palate. In 1764, Le Monnier,¹a French dentist, reported the first successful repair of a cleft velum. Later, his success was followed by von Graefe²of Germany in 1817, Roux³of France in 1819 and Warren⁴of America in 1820. But it remained for Dieffenbach to report the first successful closure of