The Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant is really a medical device that’s implanted into the body for the treatment of snoring and obstructive anti snoring (OSA) syndrome.
Obstructive ANTI SNORING Syndrome
Obstructive anti snoring syndrome is really a disease caused by relapsing episodes of anti snoring. This is a condition where breathing stops for more than 10 seconds, during which oxygen saturation in the blood is reduced by more than 4%.
OSA syndrome occurs while asleep, once the muscles of upper airways relax, causing the obstruction of the respiratory tract. This results in deterioration of blood oxygenation and provokes short unconscious wake-up episodes throughout the night. An unhealthy pattern of sleep places stress on the body, causing increased blood circulation pressure and development of severe diseases. The diseases due to OSA can be physical, such as hypertension, myocardium infarction and stroke. They might also be mental, including depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, lack of memory and concentration.
Before any treatment, a sleep study or a polysomnography is necessary. The polysomnography calculates the apnea index, that is the frequency of apnea episodes during 1 hour of sleep and determines the severity of the disease. The apnea index is considered significant if you can find a lot more than 20 apnea episodes per hour, whatever the presence or absence of clinical symptoms.
The gold standard of treatment for OSA syndrome is CPAP-therapy. However, CPAP therapy is not for everyone as many folks find it uncomfortable to sleep with the mask on the face and the machine itself can be loud, especially since it commonly sits near the head. Only 25% of patients can use CPAP-therapy for an extended period of time.
Therefore, recently Inspire Medical Systems Inc. has come up with a very effective solution with the Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant.
How The Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant Works
The Inspire ANTI SNORING Implant is a battery operated device that promotes electrostimulation of the sublingual nerve. The battery life is approximately a decade.
The main unit of this device is placed beneath the skin, on the front right side of the chest also it monitors the phase of breathing. Another electrode is implanted for stimulation of the sublingual nerve, which creates muscle tension. This opens top of the airways and allows the tongue to stand out, and helps keep the airways open during sleep.
As well as the two electrodes, this product also contains a handy small remote switch, which actually turns on the device before sleep and switches it off once awake. This disables the electrodes from disturbing the processes of communication and eating through the active phase of the day, whenever a person needs physiological narrowing of the larynx and tongue movements for these processes.
The patient may feel light involuntary contractions of the larynx, or tongue movements during initial usage of the device. These movements do not cause pain, instead just a minor discomfort. These unpleasant effects disappear after the first few uses of these devices.
Generally, the implant should be checked one or two 2 times per year. However, with regards to the situation, an Inspire therapy-trained doctor may consult patients more or less often.
The Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant is only ideal for:
Patients who are more than 22 years old.
Patients who have been identified as having moderate or severe obstructive anti snoring syndrome.
Patients with an apnea index in the range of 20 to 65.
Patients who are uncomfortable with using CPAP therapy or did not have the desired effect.
Patients with a body mass index of significantly less than 32.
Body mass index (BMI) = weight (kg) / height^2 (m2).
An individual with a weight of 80 kg and a height of 170 cm has
BMI = 80kg / (1.7m ^ 2) = 80 / 2.89 = 27.68 kg/ m2
The Inspire Sleep Apnea Implant may potentially replace CPAP therapy as ‘the gold standard’ of treatment for obstructive anti snoring syndrome. A study by Dr. ufabet Ryan J. et al. shows that after implantation of the Inspire ANTI SNORING Implant, snoring is greatly decreased. A share of “no” or “soft” snoring changed from 22% at beginning of the treatment to 88% at 12 months and 91% at 24 months following the treatment. Also, the apnea index was reduced from 31 to 14. 82% of the patients in the analysis reported a nightly use of this therapy for five years. Therefore, it is evident that this method is impressive and easy to use!