About surgical operations

turbosnore · Post by **turbosnore** » Fri May 07, 2010 4:02 am

Does anybody know any statistics about success rates of surgical operations to cure sleep apnea?
Or should I start a poll about it here?

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Fri May 07, 2010 9:19 am

The only known to 'cure' apnea (along with diabetes!) is a bariatric kind, Nissen fundoplication. All the UPPP's and others seem to eventually regress back to where you still need Cpap.

Wolfhound668 · Post by **Wolfhound668** » Fri May 07, 2010 9:30 am

I think when I had my uppp three or four years ago they had something like a 40% success rate. Of course my ENT told me I was an "outstanding candidate" with an estimated 90% success rate.

Unfortunately my follow-up sleep study was a disaster because the sleep lab was staffed by a bunch of immature children who were loud and obnoxious in the control room (which happened to be next to my room) so I ended up ripping everything off and storming out about midnight (after getting the doctor that ran the place's phone number and leaving her a scathing voicemail). My results from the 40 minutes of sleep I got were "inconclusive" so I never got a good reading of how effective the surgery was.

I'm back on cpap so whatever gains I got are gone. I am on a pressure of 9 now where I was on 12 last time so maybe it helped some.

cotech50 · Post by **cotech50** » Fri May 07, 2010 5:59 pm

When I had my first follow-up with my ent about a month ago I told him how I was doing on apap and was there any alternatives. He told me that years ago surgery was done at the drop of a hat and worked for a while but eventually you would slowly develop apna againg and that as far as he is concerned cpap is the long term remedy of choice because it works.

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 07, 2010 6:23 pm

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/tc ... ea-surgery

Wolfhound668 · Post by **Wolfhound668** » Fri May 07, 2010 6:45 pm

Ah ha, I found my old thread here from when I had the uppp. I thought I had registered under this name but I had used a different login back then. Boy was I optimistic about the uppp making a difference. Would I still recommend the procedure? Nope.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14701&p=123864&hili ... og#p123773

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Fri May 07, 2010 7:28 pm

Wolfhound668 wrote:Ah ha, I found my old thread here from when I had the uppp. I thought I had registered under this name but I had used a different login back then. Boy was I optimistic about the uppp making a difference. Would I still recommend the procedure? Nope.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14701&p=123864&hili ... og#p123773

Oh, THAT's who you are! Glad to see you're still kickin'.

Den

jnk · Post by **jnk** » Fri May 07, 2010 8:23 pm

turbosnore wrote:. . . statistics about success rates . . .

From http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides ... rgery.html :

. . . Success rates for [UPPP] sleep apnea surgery are rarely higher than 65% and often deteriorate with time, averaging about 50% or less over the long term . . .

. . . Long-term success rates in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with LAUP are very modest, particularly for reducing apneas. Some doctors, in fact, are concerned that if LAUP eliminates snoring, they may miss a diagnosis of apnea in patients who have the more serious condition. More than 50% of patients complain of throat dryness after surgery. Throat narrowing and scarring have also been reported. In a minority of patients, snoring becomes worse afterward. . . .

. . . Tracheostomy . . . is almost 100% successful . . .

. . . Other surgical procedures . . . are . . . reserved for patients with severe sleep apnea who fail to respond to or comply with CPAP. . . Genioglossus (tongue advancement) . . . Hyoid advancement surgery, in which the movable bone underneath the chin is moved forward, pulling the tongue muscle along with it. . . . Maxillary or maxillomandibular advancement (MMA), which moves the upper (maxilla) or lower (mandible) jawbone forward. . . .

turbosnore · Post by **turbosnore** » Sun May 09, 2010 3:49 am

Thanks. I guess that shows it.

Wulfman/Wolfhound668: I've been away fom here for quite sometime, but who are you now, Wulfman or Wolfhound668?
I recognise Wulfman, but Wolfhound668 looks new to me.

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