Day Care Office Procedures for Management of Simple Palatal Snoring

Abstract

Introduction: Snoring is the production of sound by the upper aero digestive tract during sleep. Snoring is commonly regarded as a laughable circumstance or a source of irritation to the observer, about which little can be done but to awaken the unwitting culprit habitual loud snoring may be socially unacceptable, and may constitute a reason for sleeping apart, marital disharmony, divorce, aggression and homicide. There are various treatments for snoring, both medical and surgical depending upon severity of snoring and site of snoring sound production. Aim of this study was to compare three surgical treatments for palatal snoring done under local anesthesia, sling Snorplasty, modified sling snorplasty and injection snorplasty. Material and method: This study was conducted in the department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Government Medical College Srinagar and includes 48 patients who presented in our OPD with complaints of snoring or are referred from some other specialty or institution for the complaints of snoring. After thorough history and examination, all patients were evaluated with Mullers maneuver, overnight polysomnography and intensity of snoring sound measured with the help of sound level meter. All patients with Mullers maneuver documented soft palatal obstruction and PSG documented simple snoring were randomly distributed using random number table into three different treatment groups, Sling Snorplasty, modified Sling Snorplasty and injection Snorplasty. Results: This study showed that there were Statistically significant (P<0.05) improvement in percentage of snoring and intensity of snoring after 3 weeks, 3 months and 6 months of treatment in sling snorplasty and modified sling snorplasty treatment groups. Patients in injection snorplasty treatment group showed improvement in percentage of snoring and intensity of snoring after 3 weeks of treatment but that improvement was not statistically significant (P>0.05) and no improvement was seen after 3 months and 6 months of treatment. Conclusion: The present study suggested that modified sling snorplasty and sling snorplasty are day care procedures of choice for treatment of simple palatal snoring and should be offered to all patients with simple palatal snoring.