TECHNICAL NOTES   

Italian Journal of Maxillofacial Surgery 2011 December;22(3):209-12

Copyright © 2012 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Buccal fat pad flap to cover the lateral defects resulting of furlow palatoplasty technique

Martín Pérez M., Pingarrón Martín L., Gómez García E., Chamorro Pons M., Burgueño García M.

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

Buccal fat pads (BFP) have been widely used, since first description in 1977 for closing oronasal fistula. Different applications have been atributed to this flap: to cover the nasal or antral surface of bone grafts used for maxillary reconstruction, as vascularized filling tissue, to cover surface irregularities over bone grafts used for the reconstruction of posttraumatic infraorbital and maxillary defects, to cover the buccal mucosa in cases of oral submucous fibrosis, and more recently as an esthetic procedure, because it reduces cheek thickness and increases the projection of the malar prominence. But little has been written about the use of a pedicled BFP graft for lining the lateral palatal mucosa defect after Furlow’s technique in palatoplasty to achieve an improvement of the healing process. The present article documents the efficacy of the BFP in the closure of lateral defects resulting of reparing of wide hard and soft cleft palate.