SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM OUTCOMES OF UVULOPALATOPHARYNGOPLASTY FOR SNORING

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty is a well established and highly successful operation in the treatment of snoring. However, most published data ar e based on relatively short-term follow-up results. Anecdotal cases of late recurrence of snoring after an initially successful surgical res ult have been reported but few formal studies have been performed to d etermine the true magnitude of this problem. We compared the short-ter m and long-term results on our patients and found the late recurrence rate after a minimum follow-up period of 12 months (range: 12-84 month s, mean 31.3 months) to be in the region of 13%. The risk of recurrenc e was directly related to the body mass index.