Treatment of the soft palate and somnoplasty

The technique, known as somnoplasty, consists of administering radio waves (radio frequencies) into the back of the throat (soft palate).

This somnoplasty method has convinced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has approved it. It involves creating small lesions in the muscles of the soft palate using an electrode that transmits radiofrequency waves. These thermal lesions, as they heal, cause the muscles of the soft palate to contract. This reduces the volume of the soft palate tissue and generates fibrosis, which stiffens it and makes it lose its flaccidity. Technically, only three lesions are needed: one on the midline and two more laterally on the soft palate. Each puncture lasts approximately 25 seconds. Somnoplasty offers the advantage, compared to surgery, of being less invasive (no surgical removal), preserving anatomical structures and therefore eliminating the risk of voice alteration, and being painless. It is performed under local anesthesia and has gradually replaced the more painful and invasive laser technique. Surgery is now only offered in cases of excessively large tonsils that cannot be removed using this technique. Most often, two to three sessions are necessary.

The only problem is the treatment of the uvula, which cannot be rigidified, yet it is often stretched in snorers and contributes to snoring. In these cases, it is necessary to combine somnoplasty with a partial radiofrequency uvuloplasty, which involves cutting the lower, non-muscular portion of the uvula. This uvuloplasty is performed at the same time as the somnoplasty session; the only difference is the possibility of postoperative pain lasting up to a week.

Radio frequency generator	Radio frequency electrode

Radiofrequency session after injection	anesthetic in the soft palate