Dr. Kezirian’s Blog

My website and this blog provide what I hope is an useful educational resource for my patients and others, but I know that many patients with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea will never reach it.  As such, I have contributed to two online resources that reach larger audiences.  I am a content author for sleep… Read more »

Last week, I participated in the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.  This meeting always includes a number of excellent sessions focused on surgery for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, and this year was no exception.  My favorite session was a discussion of how surgeons might choose from among the… Read more »

Readers of this blog and my website will be familiar with my interest in drug-induced sleep endoscopy as a surgical evaluation technique for patients with snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  Two of the most common questions I receive when giving lectures around the world are: Does the sedation given to patients worsen their sleep apnea… Read more »

Note: tomorrow I will join the #SleepHealth Twitter chat at 10-11 am PST.  I look forward to the interesting discussion on a wide range of sleep topics. Many medications are evaluated with randomized trials, in which patients with a medical problem are randomized to receive either the medication or a pill that does not contain… Read more »

Readers of this blog should be familiar with my sleep surgery philosophy: individual patients require an individualized approach to selecting procedures and identifying factors that will be associated with results.  Among the predictors of outcomes for palate surgery that have been identified, one of the most important is tonsil size.  Because patients who undergo palate… Read more »

Note: This week, I move from the University of California, San Francisco to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and this change is solely for personal (non-work) reasons.  I look forward to joining the team at USC, where I will continue the combination of caring… Read more »

Later this month, I will return to Sao Paulo for the 7th International Symposium on Snoring and Sleep Apnea. It has been a true pleasure to join colleagues and share our experiences as well as the latest research.  Brazil is home to some of the world’s premier sleep researchers, including Dr. Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho (shown here… Read more »

As you can probably tell, I truly enjoy sharing ideas with colleagues and patients about some of the challenges we face in treating snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  One topic that provokes particularly intense discussion is the role of the epiglottis in sleep apnea.  My colleague, Dr. Andrew Goldberg, came up with the title for… Read more »

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea often snore, but there is a large group of patients who snore but have no obstructive sleep apnea.  The prevailing wisdom is that snoring without obstructive sleep apnea is not harmful, other than waking up others (and maybe the snorer, whether from sharp elbows coming from those sharing their bed… Read more »

Disclosure: I have served on the Medical Advisory Board and as a consultant for Apnex Medical, a medical device company that developed the Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation System to treat obstructive sleep apnea.  At no point did I own any portion of the company, although they did pay for my time devoted to company work, initially… Read more »