Long-term outcome of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty on snoring

Abstract

Objective: to find out the long-term outcome of UPPP on snoring. Method: we retrospectively looked at 200 case notes for those patients who underwent UPPP in the period from 2000-2004 in our department. We have sent a questionnaire for 200 patients early in 2007. This has meant that the minimum time period after surgery was 2 years which was the cut-off point for our definition of “long-term” in this study. We have asked the snorer and partner as well as other family members about the impact of surgery on snoring. Results: The respondents were 42%. As a long-term outcome, 59% reported improvement, 18% have remained the same and 23% have reported to have got worse. Conclusion: we conclude that UPPP is still a viable option for snorers in selected cases. INTRODUCTION & REVIEW OF LITERATURE Snoring represents a fair number of complaints in the outpatient clinic setting. Snoring obviously disturbs the partner's sleep; hence it is a social problem. However, it can be a health issue if it is associated with obstructive sleep apnea. Snoring has been viewed and treated by various means of treatment. None of which has proved 100% efficacy. Clinicians, therefore, vary significantly in their practice in terms of offering different modes of treatment for their patients. One surgical method of treatment is uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP). The literature is replete with studies which talk about the short-term effectiveness of UPPP. In contrast, the long-term outcome of this surgery has been viewed with suspicion by many ENT surgeons. This is partly related to the fact that there are few published studies which address this issue and even these studies differ in terms of their definition of how long after surgery would mean a “long-term”. This has prompted us to conduct this study. In this study, we have set out our definition of “longterm” outcome of UPPP, which is at least two years after surgery. Iyngkaran et al reported that the long term success of UPPP was 55%. This was through a telephone survey for 168 patients who underwent UPPP with a mean follow-up of 59 months after surgery. 1 Maheshwar et al reported, on 33 patients, over a 4 year of follow up, that 50% of patients reported reduction in frequency of snoring, 51.85% reported reduction in the volume of snoring and 53.7% reported reduction in disturbance of their partners. Overall, 60.8% felt that surgery was beneficial and has reduced snoring to an acceptable Long-term outcome of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty on snoring