The posterior pharyngeal flap palatoplasty is by no means new. Trendelenburg first conceived the idea and obtained successful results in animal experimentation.
Passavant1 in 1865 was the first to raise a quadrilateral flap on the posterior pharyngeal wall, fold it on itself, and produce a pad. Later Garel2 and Passavant advised the use of a palatal obturator. Schoenborn3 and Schede4 in the late 19th century advocated the pharyngeal flap operation, but it fell into disrepute because of numerous failures.
Gersuny5 and Eckstein6 proposed the injection of paraffin into the retropharyngeal space, while von Gaza7 produced a pad in the posterior pharyngeal wall by transplantation of fat and fascia into the retropharyngeal space.
The pharyngeal flap was revived by Rosenthal8 in 1924 and introduced in this country by Padgett9-11 in 1930; at that time he reported a group of cases in which
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