"Barbed snore surgery" simulator: a low-cost surgical model.

Abstract

"Barbed snore surgery" (BSS) represents one of the last innovation for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) surgical management. Although this technique represents an effective and minimally invasive surgery, it is not still widespread in many ENT centers. The aim of our study was to develop an inexpensive surgical simulator useful to expedite the surgical learning curve for BSS in untrained ENT surgeons. The simulator is a simple model composed of a manually shaped silicone palate (3 × 4 × 1cm) fixed on a resin skeleton (21 × 16 × 12cm) using a transparent silicon rubber. The mandible is fixed bilaterally with the aid of two screws allowing for modular inter-incisive distance. Barbed anterior pharyngoplasty (BAPh) was readily performed on the simulator to show the feasibility of this BSS model. All surgical steps were carried out determining a lift and a shortening of the palate as in real surgery. This is the first surgical model that provides a realistic, easily repeatable training in the performance of BSS. Our BSS surgical model is very inexpensive with a cost of approximately 19.25$ dollars and it is manufactured to facilitate a worldwide diffusion of this promising palatal surgery for OSAS.