My Life and Sleep Apnea

If the CPAP doesn’t help with your sleep apnea and an oral device doesn’t help then surgery might be your only option. When most people think about sleep apnea and surgery they picture a long recover time and only a 50 percent chance of it doing any good. From what I have read from others that sounds about right. But what if you don’t have any options left, and then surgery might be your only hope. The surgery that most people with sleep apnea dread is the UPPP Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty which removes the soft tissue. One of the main problems with this is surgery is that it doesn’t always correct the sleep apnea. According to Wikipedia the success rate is around 40 percent. To make matters worse there can be several complications due to the surgery such as: Swelling in the throat  Sore throat  Continued sleep apnea  Drainage into the nose    One surgery that does look promising is the Maxillomandibular advancement. As I have writt...

There are many sleep apnea treatments and procedures; here are just a few of the main ones. The easy way to help with your sleep apnea is to lose weight . It probably won’t completely end your sleep apnea but it should help, although if you have central sleep apnea this wouldn’t help. The chin strap is simple device that fits around the top of the head and around your chin. The idea behind it is to keep your mouth shut. Some people use it with the cpap machine others just by itself. Dental devices fit in your mouth at night in order to keep the airway open. This is usually only effective with mild sleep apnea. Somnoplasty is a procedure that uses a radio frequency directed at the soft palate and the uvula. This in effect stiffens the soft palate eliminating the snoring. This is an outpatient procedure. Another outpatient surgery is the laser assisted uvula palatoplasty or LAUP . This procedure vaporizes the soft palate and the uvula. Done on an outpatient basis it takes more...

Transpalatal advancement pharyngoplasty (TAP) is the latest type of surgery that may be beneficial to sleep apnea patients. Although CPAP is the still the most widely used and most successful type of treatment for sleep apnea, it doesn’t help everyone. Like myself, there are many people who can’t stand the way the mask feels on their face or the constant noise coming from the machine. This procedure is considered an alternative to UPPP . TAP basically opens up the space at the back of the roof of the mouth increasing the airway. (This doesn’t sound like an easy procedure and I bet that the recovery time is long). Here is a detailed description of the procedure. A study was done at the St. Johns Hospital , 60 patients were tested and the success rate was 63 per cent. I know that it is over 50 per cent but that still doesn’t sound like good odds to me. I would probably be in the remaining 37 per cent. I can imagine that this surgery would take a long time. It sounds similar to...

This subject will probably take more than one blog entry. So this will just be an introduction to the various types of surgery for Sleep Apnea. Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP ) I know that's a mouthful, excuse the pun. This surgery removes tissues from the back of your mouth and if you haven't already had your tonsils out they might take them too. It requires a hospital stay and they use a general anesthetic. Its more successful for stopping snoring than Sleep Apnea because there may be more tissue farther down the throat. Maxillomandibular advancement The upper and lower part of your jaw is removed from your face bone. That sounds great doesn't it. It enlarges the space between your tongue and soft palate eliminating some of the obstruction. Tracheostomy This is for severe sleep apnea when all else has failed. A hole is made in your throat in order for a tube to be placed in it. During the day the hole is covered up but at night it's open and you breath through ...