Hyoid suspension to treat sleep apnea
Is anyone familiar with the minimally invasive procedure to "suspend" the hyoid bone and reposition the tongue to open the airway? It involves a device that puts a "stitch" around the hyoid bone to lift it, and a similar procedure to lift the tongue. It looks like there is a small incision made under the chin for the tongue procedure. I can post a website with information, but I do not think it is allowed to do that here. The "model", which is being used more frequently, is that you search for a doctor trained to perform the procedure. It looks like over 400 doctors in the US are trained and it is stated the procedure is reimbursed by most private pay insurance companies. The company has been around since 2016, so I am surprised I have not seen any discussion on this topic. Thanks.
RE: Hyoid suspension to treat sleep apnea
I can't help with finding and selecting an MD to do the procedure.
The long paper I link to has about a half dozen hits on "hyoid", mentioning how lifting it and caudal traction helps. In Windows 10, click the 3 dots in upper right of your browser screen and select "Find on page". Then enter "hyoid", if you don't want to scan the whole interesting paper. There is one related footnote.
The info there might be some help for selection of an MD. Good luck.
Mechanical Properties of the Upper Airway (nih.gov)
I have no particular qualifications or expertise with respect to the apnea/cpap/sleep related content of my posts beyond my own user experiences and what I've learned from others on this site. Each of us bears the burden of evaluating the validity and applicability of what we read here before acting on it.
Of my 3 once-needed, helpful, and adjunctive devices I have listed, only the accelerometer remains operative (but now idle). My second CMS50I died, too, of old age and the so-so Dreem 2 needs head-positioning band repair--if, indeed, Dreem even supports use of it now.
