A review of surgical treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome.

Surgical intervention and treatment of OSAHS and snoring has a considerable history, encompassing a number of operations all of which have the intention of reducing or by-passing the pharyngeal resistance that occurs during sleep. Review of the published literature presents some problems, however, due to the ethical difficulties of undertaking randomised controlled trials in surgery. Uncontrolled trials are less satisfactory due to the large 'regression to the mean' and placebo effects. However, there is a considerable body of literature available relating to surgical intervention.