New Surgical Technique That Stabilizes Uvulopalatinal Segment in Patients with Loud Snore

This method is author’s innovative technique which follows number of applied surgical procedures on palate and uvula with only goal to advance functional results and avoid complications like velofaringeal insufficiency. Task of this method is to solve uvulopalato lateral obstruction and to expand oropharyngeal airway. It was introduced in the year 2000 by Dr. Vukoje. It requires strict indications for application and correct selection of patients. Author has done this surgical procedure in the period from 2000 to 2004, on 36 patients (19 males and 17 females) with the average age of 45.3 years. Patient selection followed thorough diagnostic procedure (Figure 1). Figure 1: Ellman Surgitron 4.0 Dual RF, patented by Ellman International Company, Oceanside, New York, USA. (US Patent reference number # 5.954.686-Inventor dr Jon C. Garito). Interventions have been executed using radio wave surgical apparatus “Ellman Sugitron 4.0MHz combined with classical surgical technique. Follow-up, done two years after the surgery, imply that noisy sleep ceased to exist in 72.2% of cases (26) and in 19.4% of cases (7) it was reduced to tolerable level. Treatment was without improvement in 8.4% of cases (2), there were no complications. Author concludes that this method represents ideal surgical option in treatment of simple snoring caused by velopharyngeal obstruction in correctly chosen cases.