Barbed Snore Surgery (BSS): a revolutionary surgical technique to treat snoring and OSAS
A new surgical technique to treat snoring and OSAS, called BSS – Barbed Snore Surgery, has been recently developed in Italy.
The new technique has been conceived by Prof. Dr. Mario Mantovani also introducing for the first time the use of an absolute revolutionary material, the barbed suture, in the surgery of the oral and pharyngeal district of the human body.
The basic innovative principle of the B.S.S. – Barbed Snore Surgery consists of reducing the collapsibility of the retro palatal tract, responsible for vibrations (snoring) or obstructions (apneas), by means of threads anchoring the inner layer of the upper airway, made of soft tissues like muscles and mucosae, to the natural and solid anatomic grips that surround them, namely the posterior nasal spine, the two pterygo mandibular rafes and pterygoid hamuli.
Barbed Snore Surgery new technique has been conceived in the period 2009-2013 by Prof. Dr. Mario Mantovani, in collaboration with the ENT teams of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico University Hospital of Milano and the S.Pio X Clinic of Milano.
Main advantages of the Barbed Snore Surgery surgical approach
The main advantages of this innovative surgical approach are basically threefold:
- The absence of any transection or demolition of the fibro muscular tissues composing the palate pharyngeal tract of the upper airway (hence the potential reversibility, within the first three to four weeks, the repeatability and good tolerability of the intervention with the avoidance of the possible dysfunctional sequelae, mainly affecting the speech and the deglutition, created by the traditional resective surgeries)
- The customizability of the structural remodeling related to the needs of each Patient (according the findings of a specific pre-operative examination named “sleep endoscopy”)
- The great advantages given by the action of the barbed suture inside the palatal and pharyngeal tissues in terms of tolerability, efficiency and scarring stability.
The results so far obtained (several hundreds of patients treated) are extremely encouraging:
- absence of complications and sequelae
- high rate of success and high degree of satisfaction reported by Patients seem to confirm the validity of this new technique.
Barbed Snore Surgery, to be done in general anesthesia, is indicated for Patients suffering of Sleep Disordered Breathing Problems (Snoring and OSAS) related to “sleep endoscopy confirmed” retro palatal collapse of the upper airway after failure or refusal of non surgical treatments (as often happens for CPAP).
The new surgical technique has been presented at various national and international conferences; recently a poster dedicated to the B.S.S. has been presented at Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (September 2014, Orlando, Florida, USA).
The new surgery, in conjunction with other therapies such as CPAP and intraoral devices, is available at the Sonnomedica Sleep Center in Milan, Italy.
For more information, please contact us: info@sonnomedica.it