1 Introduction Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) results from a complex scenario initiated with airway collapse and obstruction, loss of compensatory wake and sleep reflexes, increased ventilatory effort, arousal, hypoventilation, and asphyxia during sleep. In adults, a structurally small upper…
As we trace the advancements of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) surgery, it is important to realize that tongue base surgery has remained a challenge. Traditional hypopharyngeal/tongue base procedures for OSA are usually aggressive, time consuming, and technically advanced. Some previously…
Radiofrequency (RF) energy has been used in medicine for numerous applications, including cutting tissue, vessel coagulation, and tissue volume reduction. There are unipolar, bipolar, and even multipolar devices in use at present. The goal of using RF in sleep-disordered breathing…
Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) medicine currently has several different systems at its disposal for minimally invasive treatments that apply high-frequency electric current to achieve a therapeutic effect. This chapter is intended to provide a survey of the technical fundamentals…
1 Introduction It became clear at the dawn of the third millennium that the real origin of obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB), snoring, and obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) was the hypercollapsibility of the upper airway walls (UAWs), more frequently located…
1 Introduction As new concepts have emerged in the medical literature for sleep apnea and also based on our own experience, lateral pharyngoplasty (LP) was developed and updated several times since we first published it in 2003 ( ; ;…
1 Introduction Snoring results from the vibration of the soft tissues in the oral cavity: the soft palate, uvula, tonsils, base of tongue, epiglottis, and lateral pharyngeal walls. These may lead to collapse of the upper airway. It is known…
Successful surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) continues to be a challenging goal. Maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) remains the gold standard of surgical care, but its use is limited due to its perceived morbidity, associated cosmetic changes, frequent requirements for…
1 Introduction A narrow upper airway is one of the main causes of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), which ablates both the two tonsils and part of the redundant soft palate to decrease the oropharyngeal obstruction, is used as…
1 Introduction It is obvious to the reader of this textbook that there is a plethora of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) palatal surgeries. Because palatal anatomy varies between individuals, different palatal techniques have been devised to treat the pharyngeal “sphincter”…