Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.
Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.
This results in poor sleep quality that makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is one of the leading causes of excessive daytime sleepiness.
The most common type of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. This most often means that the airway has collapsed or is blocked during sleep. The blockage may cause shallow breathing or breathing pauses. Enlarged tonsils with redundant uvula and soft palate is the usual cause of OSA.
Tonsillectomy before LAUP or UPP will give a better result in these type of patients.
The tonsillectomy can be an important component of surgery for OSA, especially if the tonsils are at all enlarged. The removal of redundant tissue by tonsillectomy increases the caliber of the throat thereby reducing blockage to breathing. In a mature adult, pain following tonsillectomy can be unpleasant, but is reasonably well controlled with prescription medication. The UPPP and tonsillectomy remain a very important part of surgery to expand the upper breathing passage for treatment of OSA
The uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP) and tonsillectomy are often performed as a part of Obstructive Sleep Apnea surgery. The UPPP procedure shortens and stiffens the soft palate by partial removal of the uvula and reduction of the edge of the soft palate. Most patients who snore, but do not have apnea should enjoy a dramatic decrease in loudness of snoring after UPPP.
