4 days ago
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Solutions That Go Beyond CPAP
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hi, everyone. Dr Chandrasekaran here, and today I am going to talk to you about obstructive sleep apnea.
One in five American adults complain of obstructive sleep apnea symptoms in one way or another. This disease is now becoming more recognized, and more awareness is being brought to obstructive sleep apnea, as this can lead to significant long-term consequences, such as right heart failure, cor pulmonale, essential hypertension, or atrial fibrillation untreated.
Our mainstay is usually diet, weight loss, and once these fail, we then place a patient on a PAP machine. This is usually a noninvasive mechanical ventilator, whether it's a BiPAP, a CPAP, an AVAPS machine, or even auto-CPAP. These can help patients get the comfortable sleep that they need; however, this has been associated with some issues, such as anxiety and claustrophobia, as the mask can preclude this.
The FDA has now recently approved Zepbound for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea patients that do meet criteria with a diagnosis of morbid obesity or hypertension associated with a diagnosis of sleep apnea, defined with a sleep study, with apnea-hypopnea index greater than five.
The FDA has also approved Inspire, which is a device that can be implanted and can control the hypoglossal nerve, which can decrease the obstruction that is associated with sleep apnea.
