New treatment for snoring

Last night on our local television medical segment, there was a clip on curing snoring.
I missed out on the beginning of it, but saw a doctor spray a man's throat with numbing spray. Then he made a slit in the soft palate, and slipped in a curved piece of plastic. It appeared to be a tube, maybe 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. He put a total of 3 of them in. Took about 10 minutes. The man walked out and went back to work.
They said it was to shore up floppy tissues that tend to fall down and cause snoring. Mention was made about the procedure helping to keeping the airway open, but did not directly say a word about OSA.
3 weeks post op and the man is not snoring anymore.
Have any of you heard about this relatively simple procedure? It appeared to be done in a chair like a dentist's chair. No hospital, etc. They said some insurances were paying for the procedure.
Wouldn't it be great if it could cure OSA?
I did a search on the television's site, but I guess they haven't posted the related article yet. The television station is KFOR, Oklahoma City. I'll check back tomorrow and see if the article has been posted yet.

Sounds like the Pillar Procedure.

I think r.g. is right...here is a link to an article.

http://sleepdisorders.about.com/od/surgery/a/Pillar.htm

Note, it reports, "80% of the patients who had the proceedure say their apnea was reduced"... (not eliminated)

Also see:


http://www.restoremedical.com/

There's even a video of the procedure.

Those are good links, thank you. Now I won't have to wait for it to be posted on KFor's site.
Has anyone in this forum tried this procedure? It sounds interesting, and relatively inexpensive. How much can they charge for a 10 minute procedure, after all? I realize the pillars cost, probably an arm and a leg.
I'm willing to offer up some palate tissue...
I guess I'm quick to try things, as 5 or 6 years ago I underwent radiofrequency treatment to the base of my tongue and soft palate. It was very expensive, and we ran out of money before the doctor had finished treating my tongue. At the time, it cost $2100 for the soft palate and one tongue treatment. We paid another $900 for an extra tongue treatment, and the doctor said I needed more to my tongue. We couldn't afford any more.
It did help. I didn't have a before study, but not an after, and even with the incomplete treatment, it felt like my apnea was about 70% better. Didn't stop it, but sure helped. The only downside, is my throat tissues lost some of that tightness the procedure gives over time.
Even so, I've been able to sleep on my sides since the treatment, where before I could only sleep on my stomach with my head thrown back and my hands or pillow under my chin.
This was all before CPap.

Cost is between $1200 and $1500. Depending on how it gets presented
some insurance companies will pay for it as it is FDA approved. I would
highly recommend that you get this procedure done. A couple of folks
have had it done and no longer need to use a PAP. They use a Dental
Device instead. It takes about 20 minutes in a Dentist chair. The pain is
comparable to getting a filling put in. Enter your Zipcode on this page.
http://www.restoremedical.com/

Do u know of anyone that has had this treatment done? And if so has it worked?

If you go to the talkaboutsleep.com message boards, there are posts by people who have had the surgery. Use search and enter Pillar. Here's one of the threads:

http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/message-b ... +procedure

Photogal, neversleeps directed you to the right place for the most info
from people who have actually had the Pillar Procedure. In addition to
the Pillar posts on the "Snoring/apnea" message board on TalkAboutSleep,
there is also a box at the bottom of their page that can take you to the
"Dental Sleep Medicine" board on TAS. People who have had the pillars
put in (and the TAP dental device - "Thornton Adjustable Positioner")
have been posting extensively on both areas of that message board.

Look especially for posts by PaulY and by Sleepy Stoboy. They've done
their homework. Very intelligent fellows posting a great deal about their
experiences with both the Pillar and the TAP device. They've gone about
their treatments very methodically.

Here's another link to a long (3 pages) topic where they (and others) are
discussing their results with the Pillar Procedure and the TAP device.

Sat, Feb 26 2005, subject: Drumroll Please -
Here is your Pillar Implant Pre and Post S

What is the TAP device they are talking about?
Oklahoma City, where I live, has two doctors who practice together who do the Pillar procedure. I called their office yesterday to find out how much it costs. The receptionist quoted $1400. That falls in line with what was stated above.
She said the money had to be paid up front, and then I would have to deal with seeing if insurance would reimburse me. They don't file the claim.
I may get an appointment to discuss it with them once I am mobile after my shoulder surgery tomorrow.
I'm interested to find out if the scarring caused to my soft palate would interfere with inserting the Pillar devices.
One day the innovative medical field will come up with a way to fix us and enable us to sleep like we are supposed to. I sure wish it was now and not 10 years down the road. Maybe the next "invention" will be some surgical way or insert to keep the tongue from falling back without the use of removable appliances. That plus the pillars may cure some of us.
Medical advances are taking place almost as fast as technical advances. I found that out with my breast cancer.
Once, not that long ago, women were often losing their whole breast and all of the lymph glands under their arms. They were left to deal with the disfigurement and lymphodema (enormous swelling) of the affected arm.
Now, they do a "Sentinal Node" test. They insert dye into the cancer site, then watch and take pictures to see which lymph nodes the cancer drains to. Once that is determined, they remove only the nodes the dye goes to, and inspect them for cancer cells. In my case, I had only one lymph node removed, and it was negative. Then I got the lumpectomy, followed by chemo and radiation.
I'm a tad smaller on one side than the other, but hey, it is still there, and I have no problems with swelling in my arm.
I was part of a study which was to see if the drug Herceptin, given at the beginning of treatment would stop the cancer from metastisizing. I took it once a week for 5 months, every 3 weeks after that for a total of 1 year.
They announced on television a couple of weeks ago that Herceptin shows a remarkable decrease of cancer reoccurence in the patients that took it.
Not only was I interested in taking something that possibly would give me a better chance at life, I was happy to be a part of anything that would help the women who follow me down that dark path. The risk of the drug is heart failure, which I escaped.
Our children will witness advances in techology and in medicine that will be awe inspiring. Much like our shock and awe at the first heart transplant. Who would have ever thunk it.
Wish I could be along for the ride.

TAP info can be found by clicking on:

http://amisleep.com/products.html

I used to wish there was more that could be done for apnea. Now I'm overwhelmed by the choices! Unfortunately none is a CURE.

I went to a AWAKE meeting this week were the speaker was a Maxiofacial Surgeon who spoke on Maxillo-Mandibular Advancement. This is a six hour procedure which he only preforms on severe cases of OSA (AHI>40) who are non CPAP compliant. (I suppose insurance won't pay otherwise).

The lower jaw is moved forward to open the airway. He cited studies that this procedure is over 90% successfull in treating OSA (reduces AHI to less than 15 and O2 saturation stays over 90 in followup sleep study). Main complications are jaw numbness (possibly permanent) and occlusal (bite) problems.

This procedure is just starting and it takes up to 20 years for a new surgery to get in common use. There are not a lot of surgeons trained in it. It takes preoperation planning and a team approach in the OR so it should be done in a hospital that does a lot of them.

He mentioned but did not discuss much that there are many other procedures and procedures for less severe cases. Back of the throat surgery is painfull and less than 50% successful for OSA but sleep doctors are used to refering to ENTs to do this precedure and habits are hard to change. Dental devices are for less severe cases and have less than 50% compliance.

He was asked specifically about the pillar procedure and said that this is mainly for snoring and not severe OSA.

The procedure photogal saw on t.v. sounds like the pillar procedure to me also. I asked my ENT doctor about it and he said it was only effective on people with mild to moderate apnea. It wouldn't do much good for anyone with severe apnea which I have.

i just got home from shoulder surgery so i will be keeping a low profile for a while. i'm typing with one hand.

Hi Photogal,

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!