An Observational Study to Evaluate Association Between Velopharyngeal Anatomy and Speech Outcomes in Adult Patients With Severe Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Objective By measuring velopharyngeal structure and evaluating speech intelligibility, to explore and observe the association between velopharyngeal anatomy and speech outcomes in these patients. Methods Thirty-one adult patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency after the primary palatoplasty aged 18 to 35 years (mean 22.03 years) were enrolled as the study group. The patients had significant hypernasality and audible nasal emission. The degree of velopharyngeal closure assessed by electronic nasopharyngeal fiberoptic endoscopy was grade III. Cephalometric analysis was performed on lateral cephalograms to measure velopharyngeal structure, including hard palate length (ANS-PNS), velar length (PNS-U), pharyngeal depth (PNS-PPW), and oropharyngeal airway space (U-MPW). Their speech intelligibility was evaluated through the Mandarin Chinese speech intelligibility test, and each speech sample was examined by 2 speech and language pathologists. The results were assessed with the SPSS 23.0 software package, and regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between velopharyngeal structure and speech outcomes. Results A significant negative correlation was confirmed between speech intelligibility and pharyngeal depth. Pharyngeal depth also showed a linear relationship with speech intelligibility, and there was no significant correlation between speech intelligibility and other measures (hard palate length, velar length, oropharyngeal airway space). Conclusions In the velopharyngeal anatomy, only pharyngeal depth was associated with speech intelligibility in adult patients with severe velopharyngeal insufficiency, this is consistent with our clinical observation. It suggests that appropriate reduction of pharyngeal depth during palatopharyngoplasty may have a good effect on the speech recovery in patients with cleft palate and patients with velopharyngeal insufficiency after palatorrhaphy.