Complication rates of radiofrequency surgery in the upper airways: a single institution experience

Abstract

Conclusion: Radiofrequency (RF) surgery of the upper airways appears to be a safe procedure with an acceptable incidence of minor and moderate complications. Objectives: RF surgery is increasingly used in the treatment of patients with sleep disordered breathing and inferior turbinate hypertrophy. Our aim was to investigate the incidence and the severity of the complications of RF surgery in the upper airways. Patients and methods: This was a retrospective, observational study at a tertiary care centre, academic teaching hospital during 1 year. Data from medical records were collected on 753 consecutive patients treated with RF surgery of the inferior turbinate, soft palate and base of the tongue. Patients with synchronous surgical treatment were excluded. Results: In all, 413 patients (66.3% males) with a mean age of 44.7 years (range 8–83 years) were treated with 2926 RF surgery ablations in 524 treatment sessions. There were no severe complications. The overall incidence of minor and moderate complications was low, i.e. 2.7% (11/524) and 0.6% (3/524) of the treatment sessions, and 0.5% (11/2926) and 0.1% (3/2926) of the ablations, respectively.

• Radiofrequency ablation
• RFA
• RFTA
• turbinate
• soft palate
• base of tongue
• tongue base