INTRODUCTION

Macroglossia causing retrolingual airway collapse is a known cause of sleep disordered breathing (1). Several methods have been developed to reduce the tongue in size including cryotherapy (S. Fujita, unpublished data), CO2 laser excision via a transoral route (2-4), and transcervical excision (5). The potential use of submucosal radiofrequency (RF) energy to reduce the tongue in size was introduced as a less invasive technique by Powell et al. (6) in 1997.