Dr. Kezirian’s Blog

Friday, March 15 is World Sleep Day.  According to the World Association of Sleep Medicine, “this annual event is a celebration of sleep and a call to action on important issues related to sleep.”  They have developed a set of Golden Sleep Principles for infants, and they are also raising awareness about all sleep disturbances,… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Every July for the past six years, I have been fortunate to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to give lectures at the International Symposium on Snoring and Sleep Apnea at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.  The course is held at one of the top hospitals in Brazil and is organized by excellent, thoughtful surgeons: Drs…. Read more »

A few days before Thanksgiving, my oldest brother Peter suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  Peter was amazing, setting an example for me and so many others.  We all dearly miss him.  This is a cruel reminder of how important it is to spend time with those close to us and make sure they know how… Read more »

Successful surgical treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea depends on accurately finding the areas in the nose and throat that are responsible for these problems, so that it is possible to select from among the many surgical options.  Because patients are different, a personalized approach is required, and I have written about this in… Read more »