COMPLICATIONS OF UVULOPALATOPHARYNGOPLASTY

Since the introduction of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UVPP) life-threat ening complications have been encountered. In our retrospective review of 101 patients undergoing UVPP the overall incidence of early post-o perative complications was 25%. One patient died because of post-opera tive airway obstruction. The risk of early post-operative breathing di fficulty was related to the patient's weight, previous heart disease, and severity of OSAS measured by the percentage of obstructive apnoeic episodes and minimum oxygen saturation during sleep. As late as one y ear after surgery 57% of patients had some kind of problem in relation to the operation, the most common complaint being nasopharyngeal regu rgitation (24%). Despite these late complications over 90% of the pati ents reported improvement in daytime somnolence and snoring.