Inspire?

[dunhamg]

Has anyone on this forum had the Inspire implant device? If so, how is it going? Anyone else looking at it?

Thanks,
Grady

[GrammaBear]

Are you looking at it, or are you promoting it? Somehow a device that gives 68% improvement to patients with OSA doesn't inspire my confidence in the device. A device that sends current through my tongue also doesn't excite me either.

[sonicboom]

Has anyone on this forum had the Inspire implant device? If so, how is it going? Anyone else looking at it?

Thanks,
Grady

Here is a link to a prior discussion on this:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...on-Therapy

[dunhamg]

Are you looking at it, or are you promoting it? Somehow a device that gives 68% improvement to patients with OSA doesn't inspire my confidence in the device. A device that sends current through my tongue also doesn't excite me either.

I was checking into it. Don't have any other connection to it. Just wondering what people here on the board thought of it.

Thanks,
Grady

[mrkdilkington]

I spoke with a sleep otolaryngologist about it, he only recommends them for older patients that obstruct in the tongue region only. If you have soft palate obstructions as well and/or nasal congestion it's less effective, but you could get Inspire + other surgeries (such as expansion sphincter pharyngoplasty for the soft palate). You can get a drug induced sleep endoscopy done to find out where your obstruction(s) occur. The age part was mostly about young people usually not wanting an implant.

This is the surgeon I spoke to: http://www.sleep-doctor.com/about-dr-kezirian/ He's very helpful if you have questions.

[trish6hundred]

Hi dunhamg,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I have read about it, but an implant doesn’t appeal to me. CPAP therapy works well for me, so I’ll just continue being a hosehead.
Hang in there for more responses to your post and much success to you with your CPAP therapy.

[JoelD]

Inspire is really meant for exactly what you say. The tongue obstruction as well as someone who is not less than in their 40's. I am 56 when mine was done a few months ago. My results were very good. ALso my doctor after the endoscopy told me I was the poster child for this therapy.

[dunhamg]

Iowa VA is starting to do this so I'm going in next month to be evaluated as see if I would be a good candidate for it.

Grady

[OpalRose]

We really don’t get much feedback from folks either using this or contemplating using an inspire implant, but if you are going to go through the process, please come back and let us know.

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you will see similar threads on this subject.

[suttonwt]

I had the Inspire device implanted almost 3 years ago and I've basically given up trying to use it. I wake up in the night and have to pause the unit (as designed) to go back to sleep. But when it comes back on, it comes on at therapeutic strength and is like an alarm clock going off in my mouth; it just keeps waking me back up and I always resort back to CPAP. I have repeatedly asked Inspire to modify their code to slowly ramp the stimulation up over several minutes so I will sleep right through the un-pausing but they have so far been unwilling to do so. In fact they have stopped following up with me all together. In my experience it does not work and is not yet ready for prime time. I hope you have a better experience.

Bill Sutton
Canton, Mi