Uvulopalatoplasty and obstructive sleep apnea.

: We present results of uvulopalatoplasty (UPP) in 22 patients with obstructive sleep apnea who had preoperative and postoperative polysomnograms. Symptomatic improvement in daytime somnolence, snoring, and quality of sleep was reported by 20 patients. After operation, ten of 22 patients had more than a 50% improvement in the apnea index and apnea/sleep percentage, and the number of apneas, apnea index, apnea/sleep percentage, apneic duration, lowest oxygen saturation and longest apneas were significantly better (P less than .05). In the remaining 12 patients there was significant improvement in only the lowest oxygen saturation and longest apneic duration categories. We conclude that UPP is an effective alternative to tracheostomy in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea; we observed symptomatic improvement in 91%, objective improvement in 46%, and cure in 36% of the patients. Because of the discordance in subjective improvement and objective assessment, we believe all patients should have follow-up polysomnograms after UPP.