Any one had the Surgery for Apnea?

soft palate cut back, tonsils and uvula removed, all that stuff. Anybody have any luck with this. Will medicare pay>

My top-notch surgeon will not cut on the soft palate again. Too many failed to give low enough AHI and were left with bad sad effects. A few did not work and CPAP no longer worked once the palate was cut.

He does do tongue base reduction on a very few carefully selected patients.

Too tall wrote:soft palate cut back, tonsils and uvula removed, all that stuff. Anybody have any luck with this. Will medicare pay>

Lots of people have been dumb/gullible enough to have it done. It MAY help for a few months, but the vast majority end up back on PAP machines......sometimes at slightly lower pressure and sometimes higher pressures.
If you do a forum search on "UPPP" you'll find many questions, discussions and replies from those who asked and had it done.

My advice.......don't even THINK about it. It's a permanent way to mess up your body.

I speak from following the discussions on the forum.......I have not and would NEVER have it done.


Den

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google for "Empty nose"

I was advised by a surgeon not to touch the uvula.

Most insurance plans will not pay.
Very unlikely medicare would--especially considering the low "success" rate.
(even using the surgeons' own description of "success")

A few are willing to jump off a ten story building, but few of them find they can fly.
Despite that more fools will come along to try. Jim

You might be interested in what apw5746 says in this thread.
viewtopic/t95927/Mouth-Breathing.html
Post number 6 I think it is.
He's trying to use cpap now so not only did the UPPP not work well ..it has complicated existing therapy.
Sadly this isn't the first time we have had people come here after UPPP failed to do it what it was supposed to do or the problem returned after some years. They also almost always have issues getting good therapy and feeling better.

If my tonsils were enlarged...I would think about removing them but that's about all the removing I would be doing in the back of my throat and I would have to think long and hard on that.

I was desperate and non compliant so I went for it

tonsils, deviated nose with electric, stiffening uvula

tonsils - win
deviated nose - neutral
stiffened uvula - lose

- as what that does is make the roaring snore I had already sound nuclear. Where I was managing on poor sleep before - it was now CPAP or lose my job

surgery hurt a load and forced me to go on CPAP. Glad I did it - as this was the only thing that made me put in the hours with the mask! There are easier ways though I'm sure. What if I just complied the 1st time round?

Hi Too Tall,

I am having a septoplasty and turbinate reduction in two weeks to improve my current non existent pap therapy tolerance but I don't consider that sleep apnea surgery since according to the statistics, it only cures it 10% of the time. And with what I consider to be severe apnea, this is not going to happen.

Personally, I wouldn't touch any other surgery unless I simply was out of options and had tried less conservative methods for an extended period of time. Agree with the previous comments about that.

49er

SleepingUgly wrote:I was advised by a surgeon not to touch the uvula.

Great advice.


ChicagoGramps

I had my tonsils and adenoids out 60 years ago. I can still remember how scared I was,
and how much it hurt, and how much it hurt, and how much it hurt, and how much it hurt,
and how much it hurt

Next door neighbor went the surgery route. Tough recovery. Tougher return to CPAP after a short while.

Personally I would consider some form of minor surgery, (I have yet to look into this so at this point it is undefined), to improve xPAP therapy but not to replace xPAP. There would have to be some excellent data that demonstrates improved long term results with xPAP.

John

I had my tonsil removed but it did absolutely nothing to help my apnea.
i had my deviated septum fix now that help me to be able to breathe during the day through my nose. It also made it so the Fx pillow mask worked.