HABITUAL snorers considering laser surgery may want to think again. A Spanish study has found it makes no difference.
The technique in question, called uvulopalatoplasty, involves making laser incisions to shorten the uvula, the flap at the back of the mouth. In theory, this should make breathing easier and thus reduce snoring. But Eugeni Ballester鈥檚 team at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona found that three months after treatment, the snoring of 13 patients was no lighter than before. Nor was their snoring reduced compared with another 12 patients given injections of salt water instead of the laser treatment (European Respiratory Journal, vol 24, p 66). The researchers say this is the first placebo-controlled study of the effectiveness of the surgery.
鈥淭he authors provide convincing data that one-stage, laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty is not effective for the treatment of snoring,鈥� says Clete Kushida, director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research in California. He says the Spanish study supports a 2001 report by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which recommended against using the laser procedure for sleep-related breathing disorders.
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Marianne Davey, co-founder of the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association, says surgery should be the absolute last resort, justifiable in less than 1 per cent of cases.