Drug-induced sleep endoscopy is an evaluation procedure designed to evaluate the physical cause(s) of blockage in breathing in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. One of the reasons we are recognized around the world for our leadership is the scientific research we have led in this area. One of the major studies showed that specific findings… Read more »

DISCLAIMER: I am a consultant for Nyxoah, who manufactures a technology mentioned in this blog post. Inspire Medical Systems’ Upper Airway Stimulation is the only FDA-approved treatment of obstructive sleep apnea based on stimulation of the nerve that controls tongue movement (hypoglossal nerve). Based on their successes, a number of other technologies are in clinical… Read more »

The last thing anyone wants is to undergo surgery without achieving results. This idea has been the focus of my career in sleep surgery. It has been wonderful to contribute to advancing our understanding about the physical causes of obstructive sleep apnea and ways we can optimize our preoperative evaluation to select procedures. This work… Read more »

As a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, I receive electronic access to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. I browse the Table of Contents but generally find that most of the articles are related to general surgery or subspecialties within that field (which used to be true for head and neck… Read more »

We have just completed the 29th Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Apnea and Snoring course in San Francisco. It is so enjoyable to be one of the course directors, where we can think about the newest developments in the field and other topics to incorporate as we develop the program. As I do… Read more »

The Upper Airway Stimulation system from Inspire Medical Systems has been an important and exciting addition to the array of treatment options for obstructive sleep apnea. I was the first surgeon in the Western US to offer it to patients after FDA approval in 2014, and I have seen the tremendous difference it has made… Read more »

Nashville, TN was the site of both the 2023 International Surgical Sleep Society (ISSS) Educational Symposium and American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting. It is always wonderful to see colleagues and long-time friends. However, I wanted to take the chance to share some of what I found to be… Read more »

In the United States and many other countries, obstructive sleep apnea surgery is generally considered a second-line therapy for patients who do not tolerate or benefit from positive airway pressure therapy (for example, continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP). This is based on two arguments: Surgery clearly has greater risks than CPAP Surgery does not… Read more »

Since its FDA approval in 2014, the Upper Airway Stimulation system from Inspire Medical Systems has dominated the landscape of nerve stimulation in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. A number of companies have been involved in development of hypoglossal nerve stimulation technologies, and this month one of those companies (LivaNova) had publication of results… Read more »

I have written previously on this blog about our research highlighting the extremely low quality of published “systematic reviews” and “meta-analyses” in the otolaryngology and sleep surgery literature. We have shown that many studies do not adhere to established, accepted research methods for these studies, creating a dangerous situation where publications that pretend to be… Read more »