A reminder not to ignore surgical complications–and an unusual one after hyoid suspension

Posted by & filed under Sleep Apnea, Surgery, Tongue Surgery.

This month’s issue of the medical journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery included an article written by Emmanuel Jauregui, one of our medical students at the University of California, San Francisco, that reported a case I treated with an unusual complication of hyoid suspension (sometimes called hyoid myotomy and suspension). Hyoid suspension is a procedure that… Read more »

Advances in Sleep Apnea and Snoring Course–Day 3

Posted by & filed under Palate Surgery, Sleep Apnea, Snoring, Surgery, Tongue Surgery.

Today’s lectures focused on patient evaluation and treatment with surgery and oral appliances. Dr. Peter Cistulli from the University of Sydney discussed findings from the MASPAP randomized trial conducted in Australia that has recently been accepted for publication in a medical journal.  This study compared mandibular advancement splints (also known as oral appliances) against continuous… Read more »

Advances in Sleep Apnea and Snoring Course–Day 2

Posted by & filed under Sleep Apnea, Snoring.

Today’s lectures encompassed a wide range of new developments in sleep disorders as well as non-surgical treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.  Dr. Allan Pack discussed important papers published over the past year, including a number of studies published from a Spanish collaboration of sleep medicine centers showing that untreated severe obstructive sleep apnea was associated… Read more »

Advances in Sleep Apnea and Snoring Course–Day 1

Posted by & filed under Sleep Apnea, Snoring.

The 19th annual Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Apnea and Snoring course is being held in Orlando, Florida from February 15-17.  Although I am one of the Co-Directors, full credit for its excellent combination of medical and surgical topics goes to the two other co-directors who started the course before I joined them… Read more »

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Is More Than Just AHI

Posted by & filed under Sleep Apnea, Surgery.

This blog post discusses an article in the February 2013 issue of the medical journal Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea are often treated solely based on a result from their sleep study: the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), the number of episodes of blockage of breathing per hour of sleep.  The AHI is… Read more »

Choosing the Best Palate Surgery for Snoring & Sleep Apnea

Posted by & filed under Palate Surgery, Sleep Apnea, Snoring, Surgery.

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 »

New Research–Treating the Large Tongue in Sleep Apnea Surgery

Posted by & filed under Sleep Apnea, Surgery, Tongue Surgery.

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 »