Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty versus sequential uvulopalatoplasty for surgicaltreatment of snoring

Military personnel serving on active duly suffering from loud, bothersome s noring often require surgical treatment. This elective treatment should not disrupt the command and should have minimal impact on military readiness. Major drawbacks of the standard procedure, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, inclu de postoperative pain requiring convalescent leave, postoperative bleeding, and velopharyngeal incompetence. In addition, the surgery consumes limited operating room time for what many consider elective surgery. Sequential uv ulopalatoplasty was developed as an alternative. This is performed with a c arbon dioxide laser under local anesthesia in a clinic setting, but it requ ires cumbersome laser precautions and expensive laser equipment, Standard e lectrocautery can be used instead of a laser for this procedure. This avoid s additional expense, special precautions, and equipment but is equally saf e and effective. We compare time lost from work, duration and level of pain experienced, number of days until regular diet resumed, and effectiveness between uvulopalatopharyngoplasty and sequential uvulopalatoplasty. We foun d sequential uvulopalatoplasty to have less impact on military readiness wh ile being as effective as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty for snoring, This makes it an ideal treatment modality for patients desiring surgical correction o f snoring.