Beyond uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for obstructive sleep apnoea: single surgeon case series of contemporary airway reconstruction

Objective: Adult patients with obstructive sleep apnoea can be a therapeutic surgical challenge if other treatments fail or are rejected. We report the outcomes of a series of 17 patients for whom standard device-based treatments failed or could not be used. These patients were considered unsuitable for a lesser operation and therefore underwent multilevel upper airway reconstruction. Method: Data from 17 consecutive patients were collected prospectively. This included pre- and post-surgery findings for clinical assessments, body mass index, sleep questionnaires, and laboratory polysomnograms. Patients underwent a combination of modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, transpalatal advancement and various tongue reduction procedures. Results: Analyses revealed statistically and clinically significant reductions in: mean apnoea-hypopnoea index scores (from 36.3 pre-operatively to 14.5 post-operatively, p < 0.001), mean Epworth sleepiness scale scores (from 11.3 to 5.3, p < 0.001) and mean snoring severity scores (from 6.9 to 1.3, p < 0.001). Body mass index remained unchanged. Conclusion: Multilevel upper airway reconstructive surgery was associated with large reductions in both objective and patient-centred subjective measures of obstructive sleep apnoea severity.