Treatment of moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome with modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and temperature-controlled radiofrequency ablation

OBJECTIVE To explore the therapeutic effect of modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty(UPPP) combined with temperature-controlled radiofrequency ablation(TCRFA) in the treatment of moderate and severe obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome(OSAHS) . METHODS A total of 83 patients with moderate or severe OSAHS were underwent modified UPPPcombined with TCRFA. All patients were followed-up more than 2 years. Polysomnography was examined at 6 months,1 year and 2 years after operation. RESULTS The curative rate,obvious effective rate and effective rate were 28.9 %,33.7 % and 20.5 % respectively with a total effective rate of 83.1 % at 2 years after operation. The PSG showed that,the AHI values decreased signifi cantly(P0.01) in both moderate and severe OSAHS patients while the lowest values of oxygen saturation(SaO2) improved significantly only in severe OSAHS patients(P0.05) . No complications occurred in all patients. CONCLUSION The modified UPPP combined with TCRFA technique is an effective and safe method for the treatment of moderate or severe OSAHS.