Endoscopic‐assisted radiofrequency lingual tonsillectomy

Transoral robotic surgery for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea‐hypopnea syndrome

“…Recognizing the important contribution of BOT obstruction in OSAHS, Fujita first reported on the use of carbon dioxide laser for midline glossectomy in 12 patients. 24,25 However, these procedures are limited by poor visualization and access to the BOT region. Submucosal minimally invasive lingual excision (SMILE) 22 and coblation-assisted lingual tonsillectomy 23,24 were recently described to address large tongue base in children with obstructive macroglossia and were found to be promising in the treatment of BOT obstruction in OSAHS patients.…”

Advantages of the Multilevel Bipolar Radiofrequency (RF) for Treatment of Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Snoring

“…We present a retrospective non-randomised study of clinical cases with a trial of 90 snorers (BMI 27.3) and 26 out-patients (4 CPAP assisted) with mild (tAHI [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] to moderate (tAHI [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] OSA (BMI 31.3) operated between the years 2005 and 2012. The patients were selected by polysomnography (PSG) trial and depending on anatomical findings operated primarily in one or in two stages (nose, palate, lingual tonsils) upon local anaesthesia.…”

“…Coblation of the lingual tonsils: Need generally anaesthesia. According authors it is an efficient resection method capable to reduce manifestly the AHI [15,18,30]. A relatively high rate of postoperative haemorrhage concerning palatal or lingual surgical involvements was in the literature (2.8%, 3.2%, 7.3%, 8.5%, respectively 14.81%) differently observed.…”

Transoral Robotic Surgery for Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

“…As a result of this increased awareness, multiple surgical approaches directed at the BOT level have been described. These techniques included mandibulotomy with genioglossus advancement [41], hyoid advancement [43], Repose ® tongue suspension [63], radiofrequency base of tongue reduction (RFBOT) [64], submuco-sal minimally invasive lingual excision (SMILE) [34], coblation-assisted lingual tonsillectomy [31,44], midline laser glossectomy [13], maxillomandibular advancement (MMA) [42], and implanted upper airway stimulation device [52]. Reports of surgical effectiveness of these procedures vary widely in the literature and are diffi cult to interpret due to the wide variety of diagnostic and surgical procedures employed, the complexity and uniqueness of the upper airway in individual patients, as well as the varying experience of the reporting surgeons [6,47].…”