Operation for closure of cleft of the hard and soft palate / by A. Vanderveer.

  • Vander Veer, A. (Albert), 1841-1929.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Operation for closure of cleft of the hard and soft palate / by A. Vanderveer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and what is somewhat singular, the fissure in the angle of the soft parts of the nose extends much further up on this side. Now observe the little girl, a sister of the boy, aged eighteen months. She has a cleft of the hard and soft palate almost ])recisely similar, only that it extends simply through the alveo- lar ridge near the left nostril, and is complicated with slightly double harelip. The mother says she has one child older than either of these and one between, both of whom are perfect. You may observe about the mother a slight depression in the vermilion border of the upper lip ; so sure was I that she had been born with harelip, that I asked her at once when she had been operated upon. I was wrong, however, in my surmise, and she farther told me that no ancestois, either of herself or her husband, had been known to suffer from this defect. It has been said that maternal impression has been the cause in some cases, and I find, on making inquiry, that this mother be- lieves somewhat in this as the cause with her children. These two cases have been brought here to-day for our ad- vice, and if an operation is decided upon, to have it done. The children have been a great care to their mother. Al- though the boy now succeeds well in feeding himself, the girl or rather babe still requires a great deal of attention. Children born with this defect as you know cannot nurse, and in the great majority of cases must be fed for a long time from the spoon. In many instances the arrest in development of the organs of deglutination is so great, as to actually prevent the babe from swallowing sufficient food to sustain life, the serious disturbance to nutrition being frequently a cause of death. And then as to the voice ; Observe how (^fficult it is for this little boy to talk so as to be understood. The nasal tone is such, in fact the loss of voice is so great, as to prove a con- stant source of annoyance. Children who are allowed to grow up with this deformity are