Submucous cleft palate (SMCP) is a special type of cleft palate, presenting the classic clinical features which are a bifid uvula, a midline transluscent zone (zonapellucida) of the soft palate, and a palpable bony notch within the posterior hard palate. Abnormal insertion of the levator palatini muscle causes velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI), otitis media and so on. There are always late discovery of SMCP and we observed that the VPI incidence after palatoplasty for SMCP patients was higher than that of other cases of cleft palate. So much attention should be paid to SMCP. This article makes a brief summary of the pathological causes, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment.
