Pharyngeal Flap

[macarley@home.com]

My son will be having pharyngeal flap surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto shortly. He is 5 1/2 years old and I am very nervous about all of this. Has anyone's child had this done recently and if so, are you pleased with the results? Also, how did you find the hospital stay and recovery time? Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me what a Pharyngeal Flap is??

[macarley@home.com]

My son just had his flap surgery last week. What the surgeon does is cuts a long, narrow "U" shaped flap from the back of the throat. Leaving the top of the "U" attached, they bring up the sides and bottom and sew it across the palate, sort of like a bridge. This will reduce the hyper-nasal sound when speaking. Let me know if you have any further questions.

[delcia]

your childs speech should be great
i am 36 and had my surgery when i was 11
don't give your child too much speech therapy
i can tell you first hand that i hated it
surgery corrected my speech fine and all those 8
years of speech therapy before surgery did absoulutly
nothing. i went to college and even was a discjockey

[Lisa]

How is your son doing? My son is 3.5 and has severe hypernasality post-adenoidectomy. We've come to discover he has a submucous cleft palate and understand the only correction is the pharyngeal flap procedure. Any advise, referrals related to the surgery or speech therapy would be most welcomed.

[Jason Umberger]

Our daughter is supposed to have a pharyngeal flap surgery done for a shortened palate. It is post tonsilectomy and adenoidal. How did your son's go?

[morgan01m@hotmail.com]

My 9 1/2 year old son had his flap surgery done in August. My question is how long does it take to notice improvement after the surgery? Right after the surgery, we noticed a significant improvement, but now there doesn't seem to be very much, if any. He has always had very nasal speech, but the doctors around here all said he needed tubes (which he had), and speech therapy (which he has been taking since he was 4 years old. I would appreciate your reply. E-mail address is morgan01m@hotmail.com

[Lori at lormar3@aol.com]

Please contact me. Mu daughter is 5 years old. We are contemplating the flap. She has a submucous cleft and has been in speech therapy for 4 years. It has not helped me completely. I would love to speak to anyone who has a child with the same problem. lormar3@aol.com

[virginia and corey]

Corey and Virginia are wondering if the flap was successful and if speech improved.

virginiaforeman@msn.com