title: Severity of sleep apnea as a predictor of successful treatment by palatopharyngoplasty.
abstract: As awareness and understanding of obstructive sleep apnea has increased so has the number of treatments for this disorder. Options include surgical procedures: tracheostomy, palatopharyngoplasty (PPP), and mandibular advancement. Other treatments are medication, nasal CPAP, Tongue Retaining Device, and a position alarm. With these numerous choices available, it is important that reliable indicators be developed to guide treatment choice. And although PPP surgery is a one-time intervention with possibility of permanent correction, reports of percentages of successful treatment have varied widely from 85% to 0%. This has led us to investigate predictors of successful treatment. Twenty-two patients treated with PPP following their diagnosis by standard clinical polysomnography were restudied an average of 8 weeks later. When 11 successful cases were compared to 11 unsuccessful cases, successes were found to be initially more severely apneic (mean AI = 90.55 versus 49.45). Palatopharyngoplasty appears to be most appropriate for the sleep apnea patient whose apnea index is 70 or above and less effective for milder cases.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010159:Palate / Q000601:surgery; D010614:Pharynx / Q000601:surgery; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*