Before going to the surgical treatment of snoring and sleep apnea, one should have a clear understanding about this common problem.
Understand snoring and sleep apnea
Snoring is the sound produced by upper airway passage obstruction-Nose-and throat. Vibration of the elongated soft palate and uvula makes the noise.
Sleep Apnea is present when we do not breathe for 10 seconds or longer. This is dangerous. This causes our blood oxygen levels to drop and the carbon dioxide level gets more. This put pressure on the cardiovascular system mainly the heart work more to cope up supplying enough oxygen to brain and other tissues.
This apnea can happen a few times per night or several hundred times per night resulting in no deep sleep and many health problems.
There are two types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive. Central sleep apnea is much less common and is a problem in the regulatory function of the brain or heart. This occurs most frequently in people who have chronic congestive heart failure (COPD), stroke, and prolonged drug users.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is more common and is caused by the physical blockage of the airway at night by the tissue in the back of the throat collapsing to block the airway. This keep oxygen from getting to the lungs as the muscles and thus tissue relax in the throat as you sleep combined with the force of gravity causing the tongue to fall back and block the airway when you lay down. More so in obese patients who has lot of fat deposition in the neck.
Snoring can be serious both medically and socially. Snoring can disrupt marriages and cause sleepless nights for bed partners.
Medically snoring can be a precursor of obstructive sleep apnea that has been linked to heart failure, high blood pressure and stroke.
Often people with large necks, overweight and large uvula and soft palate or nasal congestion or all of the above can be more likely to die in their sleep as their heart disease advances since the heart is already compromised.( Silent death while at sleep) These are people who you hear of having a heart attack in their sleep.
People with untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea suffer from daytime fatigue, sleepiness and irritability. Additionally they have higher rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression and erectile dysfunction. Often people with severe untreated sleep apnea will fall asleep at a stop light or dose off (micro sleep) for a moment while driving, sometimes causing them to swerve or lose control of their car causing Road traffic accidents.
The daytime fatigue associated with the lack of quality sleep can affect your job performance, memory loss, affect your ability to concentrate make you irritable and affect your relationships. These affect more in people who should be more alert in their jobs, like pilots, IT professionals, Golfers etc.
See an ENT doctor if you have the following signs-
and Snoring interrupted by a pause in breathing and then gasping (sudden intake of air)
and Daytime Fatigue and ay time sleepiness
and Loud Snoring
and Trouble with concentrating, poor memory, depression, irritability, or loss of sex drive
and Headaches, frequent nighttime urination, dry mouth, sore throat.
Diagnosis
1- Good history from the spouse. Some bed partners come with voice recording of their spouse snoring.
2- Full ENT examination including fibre optic flexible naso pharyngo laryngoscopy in the clinic
3- MRI or CT scan to see the site of obstruction
4- Sleep lab study-Polysomnogram
5- Cardiac check up
6- .Preanasethetic check up
Treatment
1. Weight reduction
2. stop alcohol, sedatives, sleeping pills
3. Treatment for nasal allergy, High BP, Diabetes etc if associated with it.
4. CPAP-can be tried, but most patients not happy to use it, cumbersome and expensive.
5. Surgical treatment-Laser or Coblator surgery
6. (please check-search this site for articles on different modalities of surgical treatment)
Coblation technology
Coblation® technology offers an alternative to standard surgical techniques, providing ENT surgeons with the level of precision and control they require to achieve successful outcomes. While most surgical devices, such as lasers and electrosurgery, use imprecise, heat-driven processes to remove or cut tissue, our radiofrequency-based –Cold Ablation-Coblation devices operate at a lower temperature (40-70 C)and are much more precise than traditional surgical tools. Instead of exploding tissue structures under high temperatures, Coblation technology gently dissolves target tissue, minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
Coblation® procedures employ radiofrequency (RF) energy to remove tissue and often provide a gentler alternative to other types of surgery. Coblation procedures gently break down tissues resulting in less damage to the surrounding tissue and virtually no bleeding.
Coblation procedures include: tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, turbinate reduction, sinus surgery, and treatment of snoring
Treatment of Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Coblation Assisted Upper-Airway Procedures (CAUP)
CAUP for the treatment of snoring and upper airway obstruction is a multistage treatment concept which may include turbinate reduction, palate incision, volume reduction by upwards palatal channeling and uvular resection and channeling, pillar reduction by downwards channeling (anterior and posterior), tonsil channeling and other soft tissue reduction. CAUP has shown to be a very favorable procedure in the treatment of snoring and upper airway obstruction.
Main advantage of Coblator surgery over Laser(LAUP)
PAIN LESS
NO FIRE HAZARD
CAN REDUCE THE BASE OF TONGUE
For Appointment- call 04712334564, 6452020,407822 Fax-0471-2330925
Email: [email protected]
