Is obstructive sleep apnea successfully treatedd by surgery?

Generally not: Depends on the surgery - uvulo-palato-pharyngo-plasty, involving removal of the uvula, and part of the back of the palate, along with removal of tonsils, helps thin patients with large tonsils. Otherwise it usually does not work. Maxillo-mandibular advancement (cutting both jaws and moving them forwards) works much better. Laser or radiofrequency surgeries or implants do not work well.

Depends : Depends on the patient, their anatomy, the severity of the apnea and location of obstruction during sleep. At best data shows surgery to be 50% effective in controlling apnea with CPAP nearly 100% effective. That being said, we still often will operate when the patient can't tolerate CPAP in hopes of curing apnea or at least making CPAP more tolerable or as an adjunct to dental appliances.

Depends: Based on long duration of observation for surgical approaches which are different types, the more commonly used surgeries is uppp, which is removing tonsils, part of soft palate and uvula, works in about 30% of cases. Bimaxillary osteotomy is a larger surgery as the 3rd step in surgical approach works 90-95% (from stanford university). Cpap with almost no side effects works near 100%.

Chosen well, it may.: You might not want the surgery though or you may not be an ideal candidate. The surgery with the highest rate of success is an mma procedure. This stands for maxillo-mandibilar advancement. The success rate for a cure is 85%. It does involve surgically changing the alignment of both your upper and lower jaws, possibly changing your facial appearance. It is done to open up your airway.

Rarely...: Most surgical procedures for osa deal with the palate--a component of apnea, but not the major problem. The surgeries that address the tongue (mma (jaw advancement) and genioglossus advancement hyoid myotomy) show better success, but have high risk. Surgery is my last resort. CPAP is the gold standard, oat (oral appliance therapy) is a fantastic, safe, and mostly reversible option.

Yea: Osa is diagnosed with clinical signs as well as a sleep study. (polysomnography). After clinical exam is perform your surgeon will discuss surgical options depending on severity of obstruction. Some procedures include septoplasty, uvuloplasty, base of tongue reduction and in more severe cases airport and lower jaw advancement.

Yes: Yes. In most cases. First try non-surgical treatment options.