obstructive sleep apnoea operation

[Guest]

hi all my uncle suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea and is going into hospital next week to have a operation to remove his tonsils and to shorten the dangly bit at the back of his throat( sorry cant remember what it is called). he has been warned that the shortening of the thing is so extremely painfull and risky and i was just wondering if anyone else has had this operation and if i could get some info to pass on. any replies will be gratefully recieved.. many thanks for reading.

[Flying_Norseman]

Wow you read my mind. I was going to post asking about this same thing. I was wondering if anyone here had the operation but still needs CPAP. I know a few people who had the operation and it worked for them. Sometimes it seems like it would be worth the few weeks of pain to be able to sleep without being attached to a hose.

[Sleepdeprived]

hi all my uncle suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea and is going into hospital next week to have a operation to remove his tonsils and to shorten the dangly bit at the back of his throat( sorry cant remember what it is called). he has been warned that the shortening of the thing is so extremely painfull and risky and i was just wondering if anyone else has had this operation and if i could get some info to pass on. any replies will be gratefully recieved.. many thanks for reading.

Hi

I had my uvalo trimmed but did not have the surgury that removes all the back of the throat tissue. UPPP

Having the uvalo trimmed was not painfull I had it done with somnoplasty. Unfortunately my results were temporary

UPPP has the reputation of being very painful and is not garranted to work
and some have been made worse by it also there may be unpleasant side effects

Sleepdeprived

[wabmorgan]

I was approved for UPP last fall... due to all the negtive comments I have seen here and all the research I have done.... I decided to continue with CPAP instead.

[Snoredog]

those surgeries usually don't work because they do nothing to prevent your tongue from falling into the back of the throat which is the most likely cause of OSA. UPPP only makes a bigger hole for the tongue to land into.

watch that experimental tongue tether, I bet it has a better success rate than any of these other surgeries.

next, once you remove your uvula or soft palate you lose the ability to seal that area with the base of the tongue. Then if you still need CPAP after surgery you are stuck with using a Full Face mask from then on because you can no longer maintain the palate-tongue seal so CPAP escapes out the mouth.

When using a nasal CPAP if you put your tongue into the hard palate, your soft palate will seal against the base of the tongue. Once that seal is made you can actually open your mouth and maintain that seal.

Obviously, if you had surgery there as a child you may not be able to maintain that seal anyway, but you would also not be considering this surgery.

The Uvula does have a purpose, to keep food from refluxing up into your nasal passage.

[Baxter]

DON'T GET THE UVALA SHORTENED!! I had the operation done in 2001 and have had more trouble because of it. 1. easy to get food in the "wrong throat" or wind pipe. 2. Wake up chocking with ball of flem every two hours. It seems that siliva does not drain because of scar tissue. You're better off using a full face cpap mask. You will be using one after the operation anyway! The air passage collapses and cuts off your breathing and the operation does not address that...cpap does. When the Doctor makes you sign the papers stateing it could get worse he really means it will get worse. DON'T BE STUPID AND DO IT ANYWAY LIKE ME. The Doctor would not tell you to think twice and loose the work unless he was concerned about you. Damned stupid of me and now I suffer. Jim Baxter
Pewaukee, WI