Snoring Surgery – Useful Or Risky?
Surgery as snoring treatment must be taken as the ‘last resort’ for those patients where previous non-invasive treatment has failed, or going along with other snoring therapies in order to improve the outcome. Before selecting snoring surgery as a treatment option, your doctor needs to thoroughly research and determine the actual causes of your snoring. Make sure you talk to a specialist who is experienced in surgical snoring methods.
There are various surgical procedures to correct snoring problems, so it is best to discuss all these options with your physician or otolaryngologist.
Surgical snoring procedures primarily try to modify the tissues and/or alter their structures, which helps to improve and restore the function of the upper airway. However, most reconstructive procedures are only able to address limited segments of the upper airway and the soft palate, and your snoring issue may not even be associated with the soft palate at all. It could occur at the base of your tongue, and surgery cannot eliminate tongue based snoring. Therefore it is very important that you have all physical and physiological factors evaluated, so you and your doctor can decide on the most effective procedure.
The four most common surgical procedures for snoring are:
- Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) – Here the surgeon clips your uvula and parts of the soft tissue located at the soft palate’s back. This may improve snoring, but has only limited success in treating serious sleep apnea. UPPP is performed under general anesthesia. The patient may experience some long-term complications such palatal dryness, long-term voice changes or a partial loss of taste.
- Laser-Assisted Uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) - This laser-assisted procedure takes usually several visits to the doctor. It will be performed under general or local anesthetic. Compared to UPPP, it is considered safer and more comfortable. The laser vaporizes the soft palate and uvula. Unlike UPPP, it can be repeated until the desired effect is reached. Unfortunately, for both UPPP and LAUP, the success rate is not very high and clinical research shows that 2 years after the surgery only about half the of patients report satisfaction with the result.
- Palatal Stiffening Operation (CAPSO) – This surgical treatment tries to stiffen the soft palate by means of electrical cautery. The procedure is usually performed under local anesthetic during an out-patient hospital visit, and is less invasive than UPPP or LAUP. Long term studies show generally fewer complications, but with all snoring surgery methods, patients do report post-operative pain. CAPSO can also be repeated until the desired effect on the snoring is gained.
- Radio Frequency Ablation (Somnoplasty) – During an out-patient procedure, Somnaplasty is performed by using low radio frequency energy in order to shrink tissues that may be obstructing nasal or oral airways.
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