AN East Lancashire surgeon is pioneering a new technique which takes the pain out of snoring - both for the snorer and those who have to listen.

Michael Timms, a consultant Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon with the service covering both Blackburn and Burnley health trusts, has developed a technique where snorers can be cured of their affliction and are left with no pain after the operation.

The treatment also works for tonsillectomies, which are often carried out on children, and can be very painful and sore after surgery.

Mr Timms is so impressed with the results from the revolutionary treatment that he has pledged never to go back to the conventional surgery.

The new technique is carried out using a hand held disposable wand, which is controlled by the surgeon using foot pedals. It uses a cold saline solution which dissolves and sucks away the tonsil tissue at low temperatures.

Treatment on snorers is carried out in a similar way, using the Coblation wand to remove the lower part of the soft palate and uvula, which is what causes sufferers to snore.

He has carried out surgery using the new Coblation technique, on 320 tonsillectomies patients and around 20 snorers.

It leaves patients with so little pain after surgery that they are often able to eat within an hour.

Mr Timms said: "Many people choose to suffer bouts of tonsillitis, rather than resorting to an operation which everyone knows to be extremely painful. But it doesn't have to be that way."

He has completed a series of clinical trials, comparing pain levels among those patients operated on with the conventional procedure and those who have had Coblation, at the private Abbey Gisburne Park, where he is based.

"Tonsillectomies and palatoplasties are highly effective operations and simple enough procedures, whichever method is used," he said. "But the difference with Coblation is that post-operative pain is drastically reduced in adults and children so they recover a lot more quickly.

"From the surgeon's point of view there's hardly any blood, so we don't have to cauterise surrounding areas of vessels and tissues in the throat to stem bleeding - a process which in itself causes the patient a lot of discomfort."

Conventional treatment for tonsillectomies and snoring uses a laser which vaporises the tonsil tissue at about 300 degrees centigrade, at the same time burning other parts of the throat - which can cause patients considerable pain after the operation.

Mr Timms developed the technique, which is available to private and NHS patients, after seeing it demonstrated as a snoring treatment at a conference in Rome. He is so impressed now with the results that he has converted 20 ENT specialists across the country to the Coblation technique, and has also presented a series of papers on the subject all around the world.

The procedures at Blackburn Royal Infirmary are currently being funded by money from the Government aimed at cutting waiting lists.