Dr. Kezirian’s Blog

Final preparations are in place for the 8th International Surgical Sleep Society Meeting in Los Angeles on May 5-6, 2017.  The conference program includes virtually all of the international leaders in sleep surgery, and I am excited for it.  The International Surgical Sleep Society is the world’s main organization dedicated to the surgical evaluation and treatment… Read more »

When I chose to focus my career on snoring and sleep apnea surgery, one key factor in my decision was the idea that this was a new field with many unanswered questions and a need for more sleep apnea surgery research.  There was so much to learn when it came to surgery for snoring and… Read more »

We have just finished our 23rd annual Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Apnea and Snoring course in Orlando, Florida.  This is one of my favorite events of the year because it includes a combination of surgical and nonsurgical topics and incorporates the true advances in sleep apnea and snoring.  My talks focused on… Read more »

One of the true privileges of being President of the International Surgical Sleep Society (ISSS) is the opportunity to organize our upcoming meeting.  This will be held on May 5-6, 2017, at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  The ISSS is the world’s primary organization dedicated to the surgical evaluation and treatment of obstructive sleep… Read more »

For adults with obstructive sleep apnea, the standard treatment is positive airway pressure therapy (such as CPAP, BPAP, or APAP).  Surgery is reserved for patients who are unable to tolerate or benefit from positive airway pressure therapy.  For children, adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy for sleep apnea is the standard treatment.  Positive airway pressure therapy is not… Read more »

Nasal obstruction, or trouble breathing through the nose, can be challenging to treat because there are multiple potential causes.  Each of these causes has their own series of treatments, and often multiple treatments for nasal obstruction may be required in the same patient.  One common source of nasal obstruction is collapse of the sides of… Read more »

This past Friday, I had the privilege of speaking to the Western Los Angeles Dental Society about the surgical evaluation and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea and snoring during an educational course about sleep dentistry.  My grandfather was a dentist in Los Angeles who practiced for over 50 years, and I have always had tremendous… Read more »

I was recently invited to join the Advisory Board of the American Sleep Association.  Because of their dedication to increasing awareness about the importance of sleep and sleep disorders, I agreed to this position and contributed website content related to surgical treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  Here are links to those pages: Snoring… Read more »

Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation for sleep apnea is a powerful and exciting treatment for many patients who do not succeed with positive airway pressure therapy (for example, CPAP or BPAP).  Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation for sleep apnea is a system that involves a surgical procedure to implant 3 components.  These components work together to deliver stimulation to the… Read more »

As a snoring and sleep apnea surgeon, I see patients all the time who snore and report being sleepy.  We will order a sleep study, assuming that they have obstructive sleep apnea.  However, the sleep study may show no evidence of obstructive sleep apnea.  This can be both good and bad news.  The good news… Read more »