Left untreated, sleep apnea can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Because you are not getting restful sleep, it can also increase your risk of car and other accidents and impact your overall quality of life.
Following diagnosis through a sleep study, sleep apnea is most commonly treated with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which delivers pressurized air through a tube to a mask worn during sleep. This pressurized air helps keep the tongue from shifting and blocking the airway.
Another Alternative
“For many people with moderate to severe sleep apnea who have difficulty tolerating or are unable to use CPAP we can implant a small device under the chest wall that provides stimulation to the tongue so it remains in a forward position while sleeping,” says Robert Mignone, DO, a board certified otolaryngologist who is the Director of Sleep Surgery at Penn Medicine Princeton Health. “The Inspire® system really works like a pacemaker, and the procedure is done on an outpatient basis.”
Once the device is implanted, the patient follows up with a pulmonologist to specifically adjust it to meet the patient’s specific needs. A month after the implant, the device can be used nightly in place of a CPAP machine.
“The device needs to be replaced, under local anesthesia, every 10 years,” says Dr. Mignone, “but it is a great alternative to a CPAP machine or other surgeries for sleep apnea, which can be painful and involve a considerable recovery time.”
For people who qualify, Inspire® is covered by most insurance companies and Medicare. In addition to having limited or no success using a CPAP machine, candidates for Inspire® must have a body mass index of under 32, be over the age of 18, and be diagnosed with sleep apnea that is the result of airway obstruction rather than other causes.
Signs of sleep apnea can include: |
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