If you need to nap during the day and struggle with circulatory problems and headaches, you may be suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). The condition is associated with considerable health risks, including an increased chance of suffering a stroke or heart attack. OSA is brought about when the muscle tone of the body relaxes during sleep, causing the patient’s tongue to block the airway at the throat. Apart from losing weight, the most common treatment for OSA is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), which uses a mask to maintain a continuous level of positive airway pressure.
However, there could now be an alternative for some OSA sufferers - thanks to the development of Upper Airway Stimulation (UAS), which is a fully implanted system that is turned on before you go to sleep and prevents the tongue muscles from relaxing.
Joachim Maurer, from the ENT University clinic at Mannheim, has been testing the technology on patients for years now, but says the treatment is only suitable for 1 to 2 per cent of OSA
sufferers. His research on specially selected patients found that UAS reduced pauses in breathing (apneas) by 68 per cent and curtailed the reduction in blood oxygen saturation by as much as 70 per cent. Patients also suffered less daytime drowsiness and noticed a marked
improvement in their quality of life. “Nearly half of all patients either receive inadequate or no
treatment,” says Maurer. This is because the popular CPAP treatment requires patients to
wear a mask at night. Although CPAP is a proven and effective treatment for OSA, many patients find wearing a mask so uncomfortable that the equipment often ends up being stored away – unused. However, some OSA sufferers remain sceptical about the relative benefits of
UAS, not least because of the cost ( 27,000 dollars). “It’s a severely invasive procedure for the body and is also extremely expensive,” says Hartmut Rentmeister, Chairman of Germany’s
4,000-member-strong Association for Chronic Sleep Disorders (AVSD). “It also can only be used on a certain type of patient.” Maurer accepts this, but points out that OSA is one of the
most prevalent sleeping disorders and the ‘new’ therapy is only being considered
for patients for whom breathing masks and jaw guards are not suitable. Also, Central Sleep Apnea, in which the effort to breathe is diminished or absent, cannot be treated this
way.
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