A New Lighting System for Surgical Vision Optimization in Barbed Pharyngoplasty for OSA

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) surgery is now a viable solution in selected patients and the “remodelling” palatopharyngeal surgery is the most common one. Recently it becomes less in-vasive with the introduction of Barbed Sutures (BS). An optimization of surgical technique is represented by Barbed pharyngoplasty (BP), that requires surgical precision and needs efficient and precise oropharyngeal visualization. Consequently, the lighting system is of pivotal im-portance in BP. The aim of this work is to describe the first experience on the use of a new light-ing system, called KlaroTM in BP for OSA. We evaluated the Klaro™ system in 15 consecutives BP for OSA in comparison with conventional headlamp illumination. The visualization of pala-topharyngeal muscle in the bottom of the tonsillar fossa, entry and exit needle, such as needle tip were statistically better with KlaroTM than headlamp illumination both for surgeon and resi-dent (p<0.05). No significant differences for the visualization of the posterior pharyngeal wall and uvula were reported. The KlaroTM lighting system allows a satisfied illumination of oral cavity and oropharynx in the majority of cases. We encourage to use of KlaroTM not only in BP for OSA, but also in all oral and pharyngeal surgeries, including tonsillectomy and oncological surgery.