Sleep surgery: Definition of an emerging specialty, proposal for a comprehensive ana-tomo-functional classification and indications
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Keywords
Sleep-related breathing disorders, topodiagnosis, multilevel surgery, sleep surgery
Abstract
Sleep-related breathing disorders (primary snoring and obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome) have been treated with multiple modalities throughout history. However, upper airway surgery has always been present, giving appearance of multiple techniques for this purpose. The adequate study of the anatomical sites of upper airway narrowness or collapse and its contributors (under the concept of topodiagnosis) and a better understanding of the different procedures, has allowed the birth of a new discipline, dedicated to a planned surgical management for this group of pathologies: sleep surgery.
