Snoring Questions

[Scootly]

I was just curious what you people are hearing about the surgery that can be done. Can anyone tell me the percentages of how many people it helps compaired to oral appliances? Also numbers on what percentage the surgery accually cures the individuals. Thanks.

[<Spiderman>]

Hi,
it's not a problem of statistics, but a question of what causes the obstruction.
I would suggest to have a sleep endoscopy in which it can be determined what causes the apneas.
Best,
Spidey

[Scootly]

Yeah that makes since. I honestly have alot of patients though who complain. They come in all depressed cause the surgery didn't do them any good. I guess its a lack of finding the accual problem.

[dareman]

Judging from the myriad posts in the forum over the last few years, surgery is an iffy gamble. I didn't keep score but if memory serves me, there are a lot more who have said that surgery didn't help than those who said it did.

[stoboy]

I'm not defending surgery, but you can't rate effectiveness on the number of posts.

People successful with surgery are likely to become less frequent visitors to the board. People unsuccessful with surgery are probably much more likely to want to share their experiences.

I think surgery is a good option for those with thorough doctors who have done the best job of profiling the patients for surgery before hand, and for patients who are very realistic about the effectiveness rates of those surgeries.

From what I've experienced, there is an older school out there that is ready to line you up for a UPPP as the only surgical method they are comfortable with. There is a newer school out there that takes more of the Stanford step by step approach to surgical treatment. I'm convinced that effectiveness rates, while probably never better than 80% for the latter are still twice as effective as the former.

The surgeries seem to only be as effective as the ability to understand the obstruction and the doctor's ability to profile the patient beforehand. Since you can't do much more than scope a patient with a light scope, this really becomes more art and less science. If we could ever get ratings for doctors based on effectiveness, can you imagine how fast we could improve the profiling to begin with?

[Less Sleepy]

My ENT told me that the success rates for surgery, UPPP in particular, were no better than 50%, and it is extremely difficult to determine who is a good candidate. With all the side effects of UPPP, I have no interest in trying it - not as long as there is a chance of having xPAP work.

[stoboy]

Part of the problem is that there are other surgeries that can be considered, but if the ENTs are not knowledgeable in anything other than UPPP, you'll never have a chance to consider them. Go to www.sleepsurgery.com and you'll see a much more diverse approach than just UPPP and a prayer.

Pillar implants may eventually create a viable substitute for many UPPP candidates.

While considering effectiveness rates from clinical studies (believe the ones on UPPP cited a 50% effectiveness rate), I think it is far more important if you are considering surgery to find the most thorough ENT you can who can do the best job at profiling you. They should also be ready to discuss surgical options other than just UPPP based on what they see in an exam.