Combined Expansion Pharyngoplasty and Anterior Palatoplasty for the Treatment of OSA

To evaluate the success rates of combined Expansion Sphincter Pharyngoplasty and the Anterior Palatoplasty in the treatment of OSA. A two center prospective series of 73 patients with OSA. All patients were >18 years old, retro-palatal obstruction, concentric velo-pharyngeal collapse, BMI < 33, Friedman clinical stage II, with all grades of AHI. The procedure involved the anterior palatoplasty, tonsillectomy and expansion sphincter pharyngoplasty with or without nasal surgery. There were 68 men and 5 women, the mean age was 46.8 years old (range of 25–67 years), mean BMI was 25.5 (range of 20.3–31.2). All patients had pre-operative and post-operative PSG. The AHI improved in all patients, mean AHI improved from 26.3 ± 17.7 to 12.6 ± 5.8 (p < 0.001). There were 20 mild OSA, 33 moderate OSA and 20 severe OSA patients. Twenty-three patients had pre-operative DISE, and 61 patients had nose/palate surgery, while only 12 had palate surgery alone. The overall success rate (50 % reduction and AHI < 20) was 86.3 %. The mean snore scores (VAS) improved from 8.8 ± 1.2 to 2.0 ± 1.3 (p < 0.001). The mean Epworth score improved from 11.5 ± 2.2 to 2.9 ± 2.1 (p < 0.001). Lowest oxygen saturation also improved in all patients. Subjectively, all the patients felt less tiredness. Pre-operative DISE assessment did not seem to confer any advantage over the patients who had no pre-operative DISE (p = 0.027), and patients who had nose/palate surgery seemed to have better success rates compared to those who only had palate surgery (p = 0.081). This combined technique has been shown to be effective in selected group of OSA patients.