At night, quiet night, people mostly go to sleep, but some people make annoying snoring sounds for various reasons, also called snoring. The degree of snoring varies from person to person, and the sound may be large or small, and the duration of snoring also varies. In light cases, the snoring can be stopped after a period of rest or light sleep, or after changing sleep positions. In heavy cases, the sound of snoring is as loud as thunder all night long, which seriously affects the sleep of others. The incidence of snoring in the elderly increases significantly due to the relaxation of soft tissues in the throat, the decrease of muscle tension compared with young people, the easy collapse of the soft palate, the thickening of the tongue root or the relaxation of the back fall. Respiratory expert Cishu Ping investigated 1868 elderly people in Jiangnan area of China, and the incidence of snoring reached 32%, and there is an increasing trend in recent years. In the past, snoring was not considered as a disease, but only related to sleep posture or obesity, or after excessive fatigue or drinking. However, modern medicine considers snoring as a potentially dangerous disease, especially serious and continuous snoring, which often causes sleep apnea and may be an important cause of heart disease, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, and may even lead to sudden death by asphyxiation during sleep, which is a disease that the medical profession at home and abroad has recently attached great importance to, called sleep apnea syndrome, and must be treated. The causes of sleep apnea syndrome are central and obstructive. The former is caused by cranio-cerebral and systemic diseases, which is less common. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS for short) is caused by narrowing of the upper airway or increased resistance in the upper airway, increased negative pressure in the pharyngeal cavity during breathing, narrowing of the pharyngeal cavity, accelerated relative flow rate when air passes through the narrow pharyngeal cavity, further increase in negative pressure in the pharyngeal cavity, smaller pharyngeal cavity until it closes, and resulting in a pause in breathing. The main causes of upper airway stenosis in elderly people are benign or malignant tumor of oropharynx or nasopharynx, rhinitis, deviated nasal septum, nasal polyp, nasal foreign body, nasal neoplasm, enlarged tonsils, enlarged and overgrown uvula, relaxed soft palate, thickened or backward tongue root, obese short neck, etc. The clinical manifestations of OSAS are persistent snoring during sleep, loud snoring, which does not diminish due to change of sleep position, and breath-holding at times. And often wake up due to breath-holding, i.e. the phenomenon of sleep apnea. Once the apnea time reaches 1-3 minutes and the patient still can’t hold awake to quickly resume breathing, death by asphyxiation is possible. Due to long-term hypoxia, the patient may suffer from daytime drowsiness, sleepiness, memory loss and morning headache due to the damage of brain function; hypoxia may also cause pulmonary hypertension, nocturnal arrhythmia, angina pectoris, hypertension and heart failure due to the damage of heart, lung and cerebral blood vessels. Since OSAS has so many potential dangers, it should be treated early. In addition to conservative medical treatment, the following surgeries can be performed to address the causes of upper airway obstruction in OSAS patients: tonsillectomy, nasal surgery such as submucosal correction of nasal septum, nasal polyp removal, etc., and uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (often performed on the basis of tonsil removal, i.e., in addition to tonsil removal, the uvula, part of the soft bladder and neck arch are removed to enlarge the pharyngeal cavity). However, due to the poor systemic responsiveness of the elderly, especially the elderly, and the fact that they often suffer from multiple diseases at the same time, it is usually difficult for them to tolerate the surgery. The medical community is actively exploring how to provide a safe and effective treatment method for elderly OSAS patients. Cryogenic plasma radiofrequency is one of the latest technologies in minimally invasive soft tissue surgery. Beijing Chaoyang Hospital was the first in China to apply RF technology to treat 26 cases of mild and moderate sleep apnea with satisfactory results. The Department of Otolaryngology of Zhejiang Hospital introduced the low-temperature plasma radiofrequency treatment system from the United States at the beginning of this year, and jointly established the “Sleep Apnea Treatment Center” with relevant departments. 42 cases of middle-aged and elderly OSAS patients have been treated with radiofrequency, the oldest of whom is 78 years old. After the surgery, the soft palate and the uvula were shortened, the size of the tonsils was significantly reduced, and the symptoms of snoring at night and drowsiness during the day were significantly improved. This method is more suitable for treating non-obese patients with simple snoring or mild or moderate obstructive apnea and hypoventilation. Especially, the stenosis site is at the level of soft palate, showing thick and long uvula, soft palate hypertrophy with low hanging free edge, posterior airway diameter greater than l0mm, or combined with tonsillar hypertrophy. Because the method is easy to operate, minimally invasive, safe, and also has hemostatic effect, low working temperature (52-62°C), little damage to muscle nerve tissue, it is also easily accepted by the elderly, and can be staged or repeated. Experts believe that it is expected to partially replace the traditional surgical approach and has a broad application prospect.