A Cleft Palate Case

Not my usual area of practice, but one I find very interesting, is cleft palate. In adults, I've seen one case of an unrepaired cleft palate, and a couple bifid uvulas -- none of which really affected speech or swallowing much, but which were pretty cool to see!

Check out this interesting account by a pediatrician of diagnosing a submucosal cleft in a 4-day-old infant -- it's a good illustration of the importance of using the patient's history to guide the physical examination, in order to avoid missing potentially subtle findings.