My Life and Sleep Apnea

When you think about surgery for sleep apnea you generally think about UPPP , Maxillomandibular advancement and somnoplasty among others. Some are more evasive than others and the recovery period also varies. What they all have in common is the opening up of the airway in the back of throat, which is the cause of obstructive sleep apnea. There is another surgery that might indirectly help cure your sleep apnea. The lap band surgery helps reduce your weight which is usually a problem with most sleep apnea sufferers. What is lap band surgery? According to Wikipedia “a lap band is an inflatable silicone device that is placed around the top portion of the stomach, via laparoscopic surgery, in order to treat obesity. Adjustable gastric band surgery is an example of bariatric surgery designed for obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater—or between 35–40 in cases of patients with certain co morbidities that are known to improve with weight loss, such as sleep apne...

Sleep apnea occurs when there is a blockage in the airway in the back of the throat. Here is a rundown of basic sleep apnea cures . The most popular and the one that a lot of people find difficult to adjust to is the CPAP machine. Continuous positive airway pressure pushes air into the throat at a rate that keeps the airway in the back of the mouth open. There are variations on the cpap such as the bipap and the apap. The differences are how the air is directed into the throat.  Dental devices are sometimes used to keep the airway open. Usually dental devices are only used for mild cases of sleep apnea.  Surgery is usually considered after the cpap fails. Three types of surgery are Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), Maxillomandibular advancement and somnoplasty. UPPP and the MAX surgeries recovery times are rather long and there isn’t any guarantees that it works.   Losing weight will definitely help sleep apnea will help some people but not all because thin peo...

As I have mentioned in a previous post my father had sleep apnea. I believe that his sleep apnea played a part in his heart problems and subsequent fatal heart attack. That was in 1977. No one at that time even mentioned that he might have had sleep apnea. Of course people have been suffering from this sleep disorder for a long time. Treatments for sleep apnea are relatively new. The history of sleep apnea Strangely enough the first mention of sleep apnea came in a round about way from literature. A 20th century physician, William Osler, a fan of Charles Dickens, noticed that one of the characters in the Pickwick Papers had a sleeping disorder that now could be considered Obstructive Sleep Apnea . Osler referred to patients who had similar problems as “Pickwickian. “ In 1965 a group of French Doctors, lead by Dr. Gastault determined that the interruption of sleep happened over and over again every night. In 1978 a Harvard Physician Dr. John Remmer made the connection between th...