Analysis of Snoring Sound for Predicting Laser-Assisted Uvulopalatoplasty Results

Cheol-Min AHN; Won-Keun WOO; Min-Cheol SEO

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVES:

Laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty is well established and relatively successful operation in the treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). But, there have been no reports about snoring sound of patients who had been performed LAUP. This study was performed to evaluate the results of LAUP analysing preoperative snoring sounds. MATERIALS AND

METHODS:

There were 38 patients who were diagnosed as OSA by polysomnography and had been performed LAUP between Mar, 1998 and July, 2002. Preoperative and postoperative snoring sounds were recorded during sleep and we performed an acoustic analysis using spectrogram (SPG), which was classified. And postoperative subjective satisfaction of bed time partner was compared in each type and the degree of satisfaction was measured by VAS (visual analogue scale) score. According to previous study, types of spectrogram of snoring sounds were classified as palatal, tongue base and mixed.

RESULTS:

In postoperative analysis, snoring loudness was most decreased in palatal type, and snoring pitch was only increased in tongue base type. The average satisfaction of bed time partner was highest at palatal type and lowest at tongue base type.

CONCLUSION:

Preoperative analysis of snoring sounds can aid the prediction of the loudness and pitch of snoring sounds and the subjective satisfaction of patients after LAUP.

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