HEARING LOSS IN CHILDREN WITH CLEFT PALATES

Abstract

THE RELUCTANCE of most otolaryngologists to perform tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies on children with cleft palates has been one of the factors diverting the interest and attention of these specialists from a problem which vitally needs the benefits of their skills. The object of this investigation is chiefly to evaluate the effectiveness of present-day management of tonsils and adenoids in patients with cleft palates. The study was motivated by a request from Dr. Frank P. Bakes, head of the speech clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, to determine whether or not hearing loss was an important factor in speech development and speech correction in children with cleft palates. This paper is a preliminary report until more cases have been studied and will concern itself not with surgical technique, which has been so well advanced by Ivy,¹Brophy,²Beatty,³Davis,⁴Royster,⁵and others, but with surgical judgment.