Dr. Kezirian’s Blog

The 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery was just held in Orlando from September 21-24.  It is always enjoyable and interesting to share experiences and findings with colleagues in several sessions and courses related to the surgical evaluation and treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  This year, I… Read more »

The lay press can be quick to jump on reports in the medical literature, especially when it comes to snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  This has positive and negative impacts, but one of the downsides is that the public can read an article and misunderstand the findings.  Companies with products described in medical articles can… Read more »

Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) is an evaluation technique that can be performed for patients with obstructive sleep apnea who are unable to tolerate positive airway pressure therapy (e.g., CPAP or BiPAP).  The purpose of DISE is to improve the results of treatment with surgery and/or oral appliances.  There are many surgical procedures available to treat the… Read more »

UPDATE: APNICURE WENT OUT OF BUSINESS IN LATE 2017, AND WINX IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. One of the most interesting parts of my work is being involved in the development and evaluation of treatments for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  I have had the opportunity to work with many established and startup companies in their… Read more »

At the Sleep 2014 scientific conference in Minneapolis earlier this month, Patrick J. Strollo, Jr., MD from the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues presented 18-month outcomes from the STAR trial of Upper Airway Stimulation for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.  STAR Trial results at 12 months have been published in January 2014 in the New… Read more »

Many colleagues and individuals have thanked me for developing my sleep-doctor.com main website and blog.  To be honest, it has required hundreds of hours of time for this amateur website developer.  All the same, it helps my patients and has allowed me to share information about snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  I recognize that the… Read more »

A recent story on NPR News reported that half of all patients win their appeal of denials by health insurance companies.  They told the story of a patient with sleepiness and loud snoring who saw a doctor that recommended a sleep study.  The insurance company denied authorization for the sleep study.  The patient filed an… Read more »

Here is an interesting study of direct personal relevance, given the recent birth of my daughter.   Numerous studies have demonstrated important benefits of breastfeeding for infants and mothers, but a study in the March 2014 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine has added one to the list.  Some of my former colleagues… Read more »

In the current era of health care reform, there has been a nationwide push to define and enhance the quality of health care.  To be clear, it is difficult, if not impossible, to define fully the concept of “quality” in health care.  While automobile manufacturing may characterize quality by acceleration, driving performance, need for repairs,… Read more »

After a successful start to the course, Day 2 began with Allan Pack, MBChB, PhD of the University of Pennsylvania.  Allan had given the final talk of Day 1, in which he delivered a thought-provoking lecture on the future of the field of sleep medicine.  He has campaigned for a shift for the field, like… Read more »