Surgery?

[Reptile]

A few years back in the UK,  I had thyroid surgery, unrelated to my sleep apnea.  The ENT surgery told me he could cure my sleep apnea with drudgery.  I decided against it.  Now my son is being checked out for sleep apnea (I think he has it) and he is interested in surgery.

Does anyone know of surgical remedies for OSA  and how effective they are?

TIA,

Mark

[Psychotech]

well! if you ask me i would go against any kind of surgery for sleep apnea, as any kind of surgery can pose health risk, cpap therapy is a good and painless option, take this from a guy who nearly died due to sleep apnea

[joepublic23]

There is the Inspire implant. It is similar to a pacemaker (sort of). It stimulates your tongue so it sticks out to stop the apnea. I may be pursuing that myself, I doubt I can learn to fall asleep with a CPAP or dental device. I am concerned about the scars from the surgery and that electric shocks that stimulate the tongue may wake me up.

[us024077]

I had the UP3 surgery a number of years ago. The surgery was terrible, ended up with toxic shock, etc etc,

Anyway it helped some but apnea was still bad enough to technically need a CPAP machine (which I refused to do). My doctors kept saying if I lost 20-30 pounds it would go away.

Years later due to a medical issue I ended up losing 60+ pounds. Sleep test showed apnea score still up in the 60’s.

Finally got a CPAP machine. Wish I had done that years ago. Oh well…

[Sleepster]

Does anyone know of surgical remedies for OSA  and how effective they are?

Well, I can tell you that they are ineffective enough that they are considered alternatives for people who can't tolerate CPAP. Your best best bet is to just put your son on CPAP.

By the way, what's drudgery and how was it supposed to be able to cure you?

[SuperSleeper]

Read through this thread before a decision is made:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...-denies-me

Especially take note of post #3, made originally made by forum member ConnCarl.

[joepublic23]

Thanks for the warning, but I can’t physically fall asleep using the CPAP machine, so it’s not a solution for me at all.