Surgical Procedures for Sleep Apnea
Posted on | November 7, 2009 | No Comments
When patients fail to respond to non-surgical measures, more invasive techniques will be required. Here surgical methods can be used to anatomically alter the airways which can remove various obstructions in the nasal passage, throat, tongue and skull. This procedure needs to be ‘individualised’ to suit the particular needs of the patient but will most often involve a correction of the nasal passage (often by altering the septum – which Jennifer Anniston famously had done) and a correction to the orpharynx passage. Tonsillectomy and uvulopalatopharyngoplasty are also available for pharyngeal obstruction, as is advancement of the base of the tongue to prevent it blocking the throat via an advancement of the genial tubercle in the mandible (like a permanent OAT). Similarly the facial skeleton can be advanced by operating on the upper and lower jaws – akin to the operations used for overbites.
In the most extreme cases a tracheostomy will be performed providing the patient with a permanent direct passage to the airway which they can breath through directly.
Surgical procedures for sleep apnea, though often painful, have a high success rate (around 95% according to some reports) and are fairly safe. However complications can arise from the use of sedatives which can lead to serious irregularities in breathing or heart rate for those who already have sleep apnea.
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