Ive recently been diagnosed with OSA and treated (unsucessfully) with CPAP.

After speaking with several people, one friend has told me of a trial in the U.S. involving inserting a special type of plastic sleve into the throat.
This procedure obviously invloves surgury and would more than likely have to be maintained/replaced every so often.

Me, living in Australia, have not been able to find ANY relevent info on this.

Sleep Apnea being a "restriction of airway", a sleve (sort of like a stent - for arteries), makes perfect sense.

Usually the most simple solution is the best....

ANY HELP, COMMENTS, INFO OR FEEDBACK MOST WELCOME

First off, there is no simple fix for OSA for all types of patients except CPAP.  That said, there are dental devices, and the pillar procedure, both of which tend to work better if you have mild to moderate apnea.  As for the sleeve,   Never heard of it, but it doesn't mean that someone isn't trying something.  However, I would be cautious and make sure that any "cure" that you attempt passes some sort of clinical trials.



Last edited by Mike on Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

apnea-holic wrote:

Ive recently been diagnosed with OSA and treated (unsucessfully) with CPAP.

After speaking with several people, one friend has told me of a trial in the U.S. involving inserting a special type of plastic sleve into the throat.
This procedure obviously invloves surgury and would more than likely have to be maintained/replaced every so often.

Me, living in Australia, have not been able to find ANY relevent info on this.

Sleep Apnea being a "restriction of airway", a sleve (sort of like a stent - for arteries), makes perfect sense.

Usually the most simple solution is the best....

ANY HELP, COMMENTS, INFO OR FEEDBACK MOST WELCOME

Hi,

You are referring to the Pillar Procedure. Has received FDA approval for snoring and apnoea, however all trials to date (financed by Restore Medical, the manufacturers) have shown that it is not very effective for treating anything above mild apnoea. All tests to date have been limited to results after 90 days of insertion.

You say that you were unsuccessfully treated with CPAP. Was CPAP unsuccessful or were you unable to become compliant with it ?

CPAP is the gold standard in treatment as surgery has proven, in the main, to be unsuccessful. Unfortunately there are no quick fixes available at present.

If you need help with cpap, why not tell us more about your experiences.

Kind regards,

Daniel.


_________________
The untreated Sleep Apnoea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

(Anon)

My son has severe sleep apnea and in spite of sinus surgery continues to have problems. He was initially prescribed a c-pap with 0-2 during night but hates the concentrater because it's noisey.  I and the pulmonary doc. believe he would have much better results using both; it makes sense if blood 0-2 levels are low to use it during tx.. Did they prescribe the 0-2 for you and if so are you compliant with it's use?  I've heard of the surgery you speak of but not much in way of trials has been done here that I'm aware of.  Whether it works depends on what type of apnea you have and where the obstruction is ect, or if you even have an obstruction. Some have central sleep apnea.  Lin.