Expert Q & A On Somnoplasty
For the skinny on somnoplasty, CBS.com went to the source. Dr. Ronald Roth is the Medical Director of the Southern California Head and Neck Medical Group and Surgical Center. He not only performs this cutting-edge procedure. He's had it performed on himself.
CBS.com: What, exactly, is Somnoplasty?
Dr. Ronald Roth: A Somnoplasty is a sort of a term they've coined for using this radio frequency device, which is what Somnus has patented. It uses radio frequencies to affect a heat-type injury to tissues beneath the surface.
What it does in this case—and it's used for other things too in some other specialties—is to shrink the uvula and the soft palate by causing some injury using this radio frequency underneath the mucosa or the surface or the roof of your mouth in the soft palate. And as that tissue shrinks from this heat injury it pulls the uvula and the palate forward and shrinks the tissue.
Basically it's called a volumetric reduction. It means you just reduce the volume of tissue that's there, and by doing that it brings the soft palate forward and the uvula forward, so that in a high percentage of patients they stop snoring.
We've been using [Somnoplasty] for about six months now.
So far results have been good. We've had about an 85 percent reduction, if not cure, in snoring of patients who are properly selected.
People with sleep apnea, which is a more severe form of upper airway obstruction, at least at this point are not candidates for this. People with heroic snoring are candidates.
CBS.com: Heroic snoring?
Dr. Ronald Roth: I would say impressively loud. Not necessarily causing changes in say your blood oxygen level.
CBS.com: What are some accepted alternatives to Somnoplasty?
Dr. Ronald Roth: There were two that were commonly used. One was a laser-assisted palatalplasty, which was done under local anesthesia and resulted in a significant period of sore throat and difficulty swallowing.
The second one was called a uvulal-pharyngeal palatalplasty, which is actually a more extended operation in which part of the uvula as well as both tonsils and some of the tissue adjacent to the tonsils was resected. And that was a major procedure in which patients had sore throat and oftentimes had to stay in the hospital.
CBS.com: And that was done with a scalpel?
Dr. Ronald Roth: And that was done with either a scalpel or with cautery. It basically left patients with sort of a post-tonsillectomy-type sore throat, which is basically the claim to fame of the Somnus piece of equipment—that the recovery time and the postoperative pain is almost zero. And I can say that because I've had it done.
CBS.com: The Somnoplasty is minimally invasive?
Dr. Ronald Roth: I would say minimally invasive, yes. It's done sub-cutaneously so there's no incision, and basically there's no raw surface to heal. All of this change occurs underneath the surface.
CBS.com: The other two procedures you mentioned. Are they also noninvasive?
Dr. Ronald Roth: No, the other two are, frankly, invasive. Because you actually cut tissue and have raw surfaces.
CBS.com: So there's also no pain with Somnoplasty. Is that correct?
Dr. Ronald Roth: We use a local anesthesia just like you're at the dentist. You have a minor sore throat. Most patients take an Advil or Tylenol the first day or so. In my case, I was curious to see how bad a sore throat you might really get, and basically I didn't take anything and never needed it. Like a cold.
CBS.com: Like a hot bowl of chili?
Dr. Ronald Roth: Maybe not even that. In my case, more like having the beginnings of having a cold for the first couple of days, where you felt some swelling and irritation in the back of your throat.
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