a new cure???

[zorrro13]

apologies if this topic is already covered. My son sent me the following email, any thoughts anyone?

Read an interesting thing about sleep apnea.. People are getting these incisions under their collar bone, similar to a pacemaker, that gives the tongue an electric shock if it slides back and blocks air flow into the mouth.. The only bad side is that Medicare has not recognised it yet, so the price is a hefty $10,000.. They are still trialing it so we'll wait and see..

[cobra4x4]

That may work if that is what is causing your apneas, in my case it wouldn't help as my airway is shaped such that it collapses when I relax too much. My sleep apnea has nothing to do with my tongue blocking the airway.

There are a few different reasons as to what causes sleep apnea of which the tongue blocking the airway is only one of them.

[zorrro13]

How did you find out your throat was collapsing and its not your tongue? Wonder if the same principle could be applied for the throat, must be a nerve that controls the collapse so just need to tap into it

[manas]

User sleepsurgeon (who I suspect is Dr. Li himself) posted the following on sleepnet's noncpap forum a few months ago:
FUTURE OF SLEEP APNEA SURGERY? (http://www.sleepnet.com/noncpap24/messages/899.html)

[JohnBFisher]

... The only bad side is that Medicare has not recognised it yet, so the price is a hefty $10,000.. They are still trialing it so we'll wait and see ...

Sure. A "pacemaker" unit might help address some patients. But that's not the only downside. As you noted, they are "still trialing it". Though the doctor is understandably excited about it, we need to have other researchers use such a unit and see if they get similar results. Plus they need to answer some very basic questions:

• Are the results predictable?
• Are the selection criteria correct?
• Are there unpexpected side effects?
• Is it cost effective?

Being the first kid on the block with an iPad is okay. Being the first kid on the block with this surgery might not be a good idea!

[roster]

Here is a long thread about the devices: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39245&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=apnex

Note that my original post was done tongue-in-cheek (or maybe tongue-in-airway?).

I am glad people are spending their money and working on this, but I think they have a long way to go to find a good therapy.

[LinkC]

From what I can see, your tongue pretty much STAYS in your airway...