Not least among the problems of the cleft-lip and cleft-palate person is the one of hearing loss. However, while this particular deficiency has received recognition, little is known about the nature of the hearing loss.
Previous reports in the literature have presented ideas about the problem of hearing loss in the cleft-lip and cleft-palate persons. Gaines,1 in her study of the problem, postulated that cleft-palate children were prone to middle-ear pathologies because of the exposure of the Eustachian tube to pathological insult or because of irregularities in the tubes. She concluded that there is a greater incidence of hearing loss in cleft-palate children and that the basis for the hearing loss was dysfunction of the Eustachian tube because of anatomical deviations of the related musculature. In the study by Gannon* the relationship of several surgical variables to hearing loss in a cleft-palate population was examined. The rationale for