[News] Desperate sleep apnea sufferers find relief through facial surgery

[PaulaO2]

A co-worker was getting choked on food a lot. He also snored and they did a sleep test but he did not have sleep apnea. They then found out he had a very narrow throat and some other kind of restriction. He's this tall, lanky, scrawny man. After much research and 2nd, 3rd opinions, he finally had surgery done to enlarge the area. His constant choking and then reflux because it didn't go all the way down, was getting worse.

It took him a long time to recover and I think is just now at the point where he can eat anything he wants.

His snoring was worse so they ordered another sleep study. The theory is the narrower airway kept his throat muscles tense. Now that the restriction has been removed, they were thinking they may not be collapsing and causing apnea events.

I keep meaning to ask if he's ever had it done yet.

As a side note, two other co-workers also use CPAPs but they both only use it when they feel really tired. They use it for a few nights, start feeling better, and stop using it. Both had surgery recently and I really stressed to her to stress to them that they really really needed to use their CPAPs in order to keep their blood O2 up to help with healing. I didn't ask if they actually did or not. No use getting my blood pressure up over things I can't control.

[vsheline]

He's this tall, lanky, scrawny man.

By the way, men and women who are very tall and long-armed sometimes have a genetic condition called Marfan Syndrome. One of the effects of Marfan is our main arteries tend to be weaker than normal and may (usually very gradually, over the years) stretch until they break, unless unusually strenuous activity is limited.

Most people who have Marfan are unaware of it until they do something very strenuous like helping to push a stalled car off the road, and a blood vessel suddenly bursts and they collapse and die quickly from internal bleeding.

Typical symptoms are rapid growth in height as a teenager and wingspan (distance from finger tips of one hand to the fingertips of the other hand) is 110% or more of the person's height.

Might mention Marfan to him so be can read up on it to see if he might want to have himself evaluated whether he may have it.

Take care,
--- Vaughn

[PaulaO2]

Yup. I have Ehlers-Danlos so I'm familiar with Marfans. But he doesn't have it. He lacks in some of the other features such as the wingspan.

[southernlady]

As someone who has had the MMA (also known as the LeFort/SSRO) the article doesn't tell the whole story.

I was told by my oral/maxifacial surgeon that those with severe sleep apnea are much less likely to be helped by this procedure. I was very borderline...my AHI was a 6...it was my oxygen levels that tanked (down to 70). And it has made a world of difference there.

While I did improve to less than a 3 AHI, my oxygen ranges now between 98-100. So YES, it was very much worth it. Even the residual numbness that lingers. My surgery was in late March of last year. I didn't get mine to treat the apnea. I got mine to treat the lack of oxygen going into my system. I saw my pre-op panoramic xray and I had a very skinny windpipe. The one they did after surgery has a MARKED improvement.

I can eat pretty much anything now...altho nuts and popcorn are things my teeth don't like any longer.

Liz