What You Need to Know About Sleep Apnea Surgery

There are many sleep apnea surgery options available for treating various types of sleep apnea that exist. However, the surgical options are used as a last resort when other methods have proved to be unsuccessful. The type of surgery option to be performed depends on the person's specific anatomy and the severity of the condition. Many patients prefer sleep apnea surgery than other methods of treating this disorder since the surgery method offers a cure with only one treatment. It sounds easier and more convenient to most of the patients than wearing a mask every night or wearing a dental appliance.

However, surgical options currently available and administered to the patients have inherent risks of infection and complications and in some rare instances, the symptoms become worse than they were before the surgery. In addition, most of the surgery options available to the patient require time off work in order to facilitate their healing while others cause pains that may last for up to two weeks. The most common risks for sleep apnea surgery include bleeding, infection, change of voice, scar tissues, pain, problem in swallowing food, and anesthesia risks such as allergic reactions, heart attack and in some instances death. In fact, this options needs only to be considered when all the benefits, risks and other alternatives to surgery have been well understood.

Some insurance companies require at least three weeks of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment before allowing their clients to undergo sleep apnea surgery. This is informed by the fact that CPAP is quite effective and less risky compared to surgical options. It is quite rare to have any serious complications using CPAP unlike surgical options which are fraught with inherent risks. Sleep apnea surgery treatment must address the anatomic problematic areas that may be causing apnea. For instance, surgical treatment can address areas such as the tongue, palate, neck, jaws or the neck. The success rate is determined by whether specific airways collapse or not or whether the obstruction is prevented. Hence, there is no ideal sleep apnea surgery option but the success of any of the available options depends on each patient's specific problem.

Types of surgery options available to the patient's are:

Nasal airway surgery:
This type of surgery is used to enhance effectiveness of CPAP, since nasal obstruction makes it difficult for patients to tolerate CPAP treatment. Thus, a surgery to open the nasal airway clearly improves tolerance to CPAP by the patient.

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP):
This is a surgery treatment procedure that is used to remove soft tissues on the throat's back. These tissues include parts of the uvula, soft palate parts and throat tissues behind it. Additionally, tonsils and adenoids are removed during this surgery procedure if they are present. The main aim of UPPP surgery is to widen the airway on the throat, block some throat muscles in order to enhance the ability of the airway to remain open all the time and improve the soft palate's ability to open and close.

Tracheotomy:
This type of surgery is used to be the only surgical option available before the emergence of other methods. Nowadays, this form of surgery is performed in rare instances like when the sleep apnea is life threatening. Tracheotomy surgery is straightforward since the surgeon just makes an opening in the neck into the windpipe where the doctor inserts a tube.

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Original article

Sleep Studies Recommended Before Bariatric Surgery

Sleep studies performed on 132 obese male and female patients has found a massive 64% suffered from a significant degree of obstructive sleep apnoea / apnea.

The study was conducted over three years and reported recently in the Journal of Sleep And Breathing. Diagnostic sleep studies (polysomnograms) were performed on patients preparing to undergo gastric bypass surgery between January 2004 and January 2007.

Where obstructive sleep apnoea / apnea (OSA) was found, it was graded as mild (less than 15 apnoeic events per hour of sleep), moderate (15 to 30 apnoeic events per hour of sleep) or severe (30 or more apnoeic events per hour of sleep), as measured by the apnoea hypopnoea index / apnea hypopnea index (AHI).

The study also considered factors such as the patients' gender, age, weight, height, body mass index, neck circumference, and waist circumference. In the patients with OSA, the body mass index (BMI), neck circumference and age were higher than in patients without OSA. An individual's waist circumference was not found to have any correlation with the existence of OSA, but BMI, age and male gender were each found to be independent predictors of sleep apnoea / apnea.

With the female patients, high BMI and age greater than 49 years were the only significant predictors of moderate or severe OSA. The study found that men and women over 49 years of age have the greatest risk for OSA. The prevalence of moderate or severe sleep apnoea / apnea was 71 percent in the male and 31 percent in the female patients.

The researchers recommend mandatory preoperative sleep studies for severely obese patients.

Interestingly, the existence of a sleep disordered breathing condition such as obstructive sleep apnoea / apnea has previously been found to be a cause of metabolic retardation. This raises an interesting question: Did the patients have a sleep disordered breathing condition in the first place which contributed to their obesity by slowing their metabolism? Or was the patient's sleep disordered breathing condition as a consequence of their obesity?

The relationship between obesity and sleep apnoea / apnea is probably circular. That is, obese patients are more likely to suffer from a sleep disordered breathing condition. At the same time, people with a sleep disordered breathing condition are more likely to have a slow metabolism and thus gain weight. Treatment for both conditions (obesity and sleep disordered breathing) should therefore be provided to patients who suffer from these co-morbidities.

The Sleep Therapy Clinics specialise in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing conditions such as snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea / apnea. For more information, visit http://www.sleeptherapyclinic.com/

Original article