Snoring and Sleep Apnea Surgery in Turkey

What is Snoring?

Snoring, is the formation of a noisy bass sound during breathing due to the relaxation of the muscles in the region of the small tongue, soft palate and tongue root, and the excessive vibration and collision of the tissues in this area during sleep.

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is the stopping of breathing for at least 10 seconds, while obstructive sleep apnea syndrome; It is defined as a syndrome characterized by recurrent complete or partial narrowing of the upper respiratory tract during sleep and often a decrease in blood oxygen saturation.

In these patients, inability to get the desired depth of sleep at night, waking up tired in the morning due to decreased oxygen levels in the blood, daytime sleepiness, difficulty in losing weight, irritability, depressed mood, memory and concentration problems, high blood pressure and heart problems, diabetes, heart failure, stroke, heart attack, sexual problems, frequent urination, respiratory failure in lung patients can occur.

Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

1. First of all, an ear, nose and throat examination and endoscopic examination for snoring should be performed. Endoscopic examination should evaluate all airways from the nose to the trachea. The most common causes that narrow the airways are sagging of the small tongue, large tongue root, adenoid, deviations in the nose and enlarged nasal flesh.
2. Polysomnography (Sleep Test): A test that analyzes your sleep in detail by recording blood oxygen levels, breathing, brain wave activity, heart rate, and eye and leg movements during the sleep test. The sleep test is often done at night. However, it can also be performed during the day for those who work in shifts and have the habit of sleeping during the day.

What are the Treatment Methods for Sleep Apnea?

Snoring and sleep apnea are treatable diseases. Every well-treated patient can have a healthy life.

Snoring and sleep apnea can be treated with general precautions, various devices that give positive air (CPAP, BPAP, APAP etc.), devices called intraoral appliances or surgery. Intraoral appliances are effective only in patients with certain levels of stenosis in the endoscopic examination we perform after the ear, nose and throat examination.

What are the Surgical Treatment Methods in Sleep Apnea?

The aim of surgical treatments is to tighten, remove and reduce the structures that cause obstruction in the airway. We perform up-to-date surgeries and new technological planning in all our snoring patients.

Pharyngoplasty and Palatoplasty Surgeries:

Today, these surgeries are the most commonly used methods in the surgical treatment of sleep apnea. With this method, we provide enlargement of the airways without cutting the small tongue. By reshaping the tissues around the small tongue, soft palate and tonsils, a larger area is created for air passage. We discharge our patients after hospitalization for 2-3 days after this surgery.

Operations on the root of the tongue:

We perform tongue root resection (removal of tissue from the tongue root) with robotic surgery or coblator device, hanging the tongue root to the jaw with sutures or reducing the tongue root with radiofrequency. After this surgery, we discharge our patients after 1-2 days of hospitalization.

Other surgeries:

Removal of large tonsils (tonsillectomy), removal of adenoids (adenoidectomy), deviation surgery if there is a cartilage-bone curvature in the nose, radiofrequency or surgical reduction of nasal flesh, and surgeries to correct the position of the jaw bones in patients with jaw structure disorders are used to treat sleep apnea.