Note: our 19th Annual Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Apnea and Snoring course will be held on February 15-17, 2013, in Orlando, Florida.  It is the largest course dedicated to snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, and it combines medical and surgical evaluation and treatment in an unique format.  Please do not hesitate to… Read more »

This blog post discusses two articles in the January 2013 issue of the medical journal Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery that report outcomes for sleep apnea surgery involving removing part of the back of the tongue. Two of the major factors that cause obstructive sleep apnea and snoring are head and neck structure (anatomy) and the… Read more »

Every July for the past six years, I have been fortunate to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to give lectures at the International Symposium on Snoring and Sleep Apnea at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.  The course is held at one of the top hospitals in Brazil and is organized by excellent, thoughtful surgeons: Drs…. Read more »

A few days before Thanksgiving, my oldest brother Peter suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  Peter was amazing, setting an example for me and so many others.  We all dearly miss him.  This is a cruel reminder of how important it is to spend time with those close to us and make sure they know how… Read more »

Successful surgical treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea depends on accurately finding the areas in the nose and throat that are responsible for these problems, so that it is possible to select from among the many surgical options.  Because patients are different, a personalized approach is required, and I have written about this in… Read more »

Sleep Surgery Includes Palate Region and Tongue Region Procedures Sleep surgery is the surgical treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  For many years, there was only one procedure (called uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, or UPPP) to treat these problems.  Although UPPP clearly helps many patients, it has some important limitations that I have discussed in a previous… Read more »

At the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting last week in Washington, DC, Alan Pack, MBChB, PhD delivered the Neel Distinguished Research Lecture on the topic “Towards Personalized Sleep Apnea Surgery”.  This honor is reserved for those with major contributions to science in disorders of the head and neck, and Dr. Pack… Read more »

At the Tenth World Congress of Sleep Apnea last week in Rome, I had the opportunity to spend time with colleagues from around the world, including two groups of Italian surgeons who have developed modifications to the expansion sphincter pharyngoplasty procedure (incorporated in my explanation of the procedure on my website).  This expanded on presentations… Read more »

I often hear people refer to someone they know—or themselves—as having “the surgery for sleep apnea”, following it up with the assessment about whether “it worked” or not.  Whenever this occurs, I take a deep breath before starting in on the explanation below. My website hopefully makes it clear that there are many procedures available… Read more »

When people hear that I specialize in the treatment of sleep disorders, especially snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, I become much more popular in conversations at social events outside of work.  Because sleep disorders are incredibly common, and because sleep is so important to our enjoyment of life and health, there is no shortage of… Read more »