Conventional uvulopalatopharyngoplasty has in the last years to an increasing extent been succeeded by a variety of
laser procedures for snorers obstructed by lax palates only. These surgical techniques have the advantages of being less traumatic and therefore more suitable for
local anesthesia and
outpatient surgery. However, to the authors' knowledge, there are no studies on degree of patient discomfort during this type of surgery as well as the value of
anticholinergic component in
premedication in preventing
bradycardia and
hypersalivation during the operation. We studied 53 consecutive patients undergoing
laser-uvulopalatoplasty (LUPP) under
local anesthesia at our
day care unit. LUPP is a one-stage operation for rhonchopathy which has been developed at our department. Twenty-five patients received
morphine and
scopolamine, and 28
morphine alone as
premedication. Peroperative salivation,
bradycardia and
nausea was estimated and recorded for each group. Later the patients were asked to assess
mouth dryness both before and after surgery, as well as satisfaction with sedation and
pain relief. The great majority of the patients (> 80%) described only insignificant
pain, which when occurring was related to subliminal
premedication or to the injection of
local anesthesia or both.
Morphine-
scopolamine was significantly better in preventing
hypersalivation (p < 0.01) during surgery and also improved sedation and
analgesia when compared to
morphine alone (p < 0.05). The efficacy of LUPP is compared with various
laser procedures for
snoring.