Upper Airway Surgery for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Aaron E
Sleep Medicine Reviews, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp 195±212, 2002 doi:10.1053/smrv.2002.0242, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Upper airway surgery for obstructive sleep apnea Aaron E. Sher Capital Region Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Group, LLP, Medical Director, Capital Region Sleep Wake Disorders Center of St. Peter's Hospital, Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery, Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA KEYWORDS Summary Upper airway surgical treatments for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome Sleep apnea syndromes, (OSAS) attempt to modify dysfunctional pharyngeal anatomy or by-pass the pharynx. surgery, pharynx, Modi®cations of the pharynx diminish the bulk of soft tissue structures which abut the airway, soft tissue, air column, place them under tension, others alter their spatial inter-relationships. skeletal, palate, tongue, Surgical procedures are designed to modify the retropalatal pharynx, the retrolingual maxillomandibular, pharynx, or both. There is no single surgical procedure, short of tracheostomy, which tracheostomy, consistently results in complete elimination of OSAS. However, appropriate application of current surgical techniques (synchronously or sequentially) may achieve uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, cure in most patients without resort to tracheostomy. Patient selection, versatility in polysomnography varied surgical approaches, and willingness to utilize more than one procedure when necessary appear to be critical attributes of a successful surgical program. On the other hand, analysis of the ef®cacy of individual surgical interventions is thwarted by the frequent practice of reporting on the application of multiple procedures in combination with evaluation of the composite effect. Well designed, multi-center studies would help clarify the strengths and weaknesses of different treatment approaches.
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