AirLift Sleep Apnea Surgery

[SamInLasVegas]

Has anyone had any experience with this? I did a forum search and found one thread back from 2018 from a guy was asking about it, but he never returned after his initial post and nobody really seemed to have much information. It's been four years, so I'm thinking maybe there has been some more exposure to this. Just curious on people's thoughts. I've read about that Inspire appliance, but I don't know how I feel about having an implant in my chest. I've been on CPAP therapy for four years and while my symptoms have improved, I've never had one of those experiences where I've woken up the next morning feeling like a million bucks like so many others have experienced. Considering researching other options.

https://www.texasent.com/sleep/airlift-procedure/

[chunkyfrog]

Sorry.
Cpap is still the gold standard.
It is the only therapy covered by Medicare.
Alternatives seem to always turn out to disappoint--some to injure.

[Pugsy]

Haven't ever heard of it.

But do remember that this is a cpap help forum and not really a forum about alternative therapies and/or successes.
Most anyone doing some sort of alternative therapy isn't going to be hanging around here talking about it.

[Pugsy]

Instead of reading just from an ENT doctor's office promoting the surgery you might want to read from the actual procedure website
https://airliftsleep.com/

[Respirator99]

As Pugsy said, there's not likely to be many users of this type of procedure here, which is unfortunate because it would be good to get some real user experience.

Whenever new procedures or devices come along, I always look for the supporting evidence.

• There should be a reasonable number of peer-reviewed papers that are actually relevant to the device in question - often there will be a large number of irrelevant or only partially-relevant papers listed.
• I also check the authors and their affiliations: if there are many papers by the same author, that may suggest a bias or vested interest. Likewise if the papers are funded by the device manufacturer, there is a possibility of vested interest or bias.
• Look for studies with a reasonable number of participants - many times we see papers with very small sample numbers (sometimes a single individual) which don't really give a high level of confidence.
• Finally, look for the claimed AHI reduction - more often than not it will be a vague percentage or a clinically unacceptable number. Eg a 50% reduction will still leave you with an AHI of 20 if you started with 40. Or using a number such as AHI=20 as a measure of success.

[ChicagoGranny]

AirLift Sleep Apnea SurgeryQuote SamInLasVegas

According to the company's own results,

73% median improvement in sleep apnea
when performed with UPPP

Do you really want to butcher your airway with a UPPP? Study it carefully and consider it for a long time before deciding to go this route. UPPP has fallen out of favor with many ENTs.

This independent study found these results:

AHI improved significantly from (39.7 ± 21.2) events/h to (22.6 ± 22.7) events/h after HMS (P < 0.01), which represented a 43% reduction. LSAT significantly increased from (82.2% ± 9.9%) to (86.6% ± 6.2%), P < 0.01. There was no improvement in ESS after surgery (8.2 ± 4.4) to (8.3 ± 5.2), P = 0.904. A subset of patients with severe OSA (AHI > 30 events/h) had an improvement in AHI from (49.9 ± 16.6) events/h to (29.1 ± 24.9) events/h, P < 0.01.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5683656/

IMO, those are poor results. All of the patients still had sleep apnea.

[ChicagoGranny]

Sorry.
Cpap is still the gold standard.
It is the only therapy covered by Medicare.

The AirLift procedure is covered by Medicare (CPT 21685) and most private policies. UPPP, tongue base reduction, and other apnea surgeries are also covered.

[chunkyfrog]

I stand corrected; but STILL am not signing up for it.

[sephiro499]

I've never had one of those experiences where I've woken up the next morning feeling like a million bucks like so many others have experienced. Considering researching other options.

I haven't had that procedure but I did have DJS, tongue moved forward, septoplasty, reduction osseous genioplasty. Actually sleep worse now (far worse w memory and mood problems), can't tolerate cpap at all. I was on cpap for 11 years and the only thing that sustained me was the Drs telling me 'you'll feel better the next day' and 'your numbers are great'. The best decision I could have ever done was to stop using the cpap machine before I became dependent on it.

My sleep was better before I ever started cpap! And I'm not convinced that have a FFM strapped to your face for years on end won't produce cranio-facial changes and I know there is some data to support this, certainly occlusion changes. And when I read a post on reddit that they had a sleep apnea surgery consult in Korea and the Dr told him that the muscles in his throat were overdeveloped to compensate for having a machine blast air down his throat all night for years on end.

Having said all of that you could have perfectly treated OSA and still have UARS. There are only 8 sleep labs in the country that even have the equipment (esophageal pressure monitoring) to dx UARS, as EPM is the gold standard. If you haven't noticed the entire industry is designed to throw cpap machines in the fastest and most profitable way possible.

ENT dr tried to pitch Inspire to me. No thanks, anything that increases my dependency on the medical system I'm against. That device can only be adjusted by them holding a device to your implant to change the settings. It's basically a pacemaker for your tongue.

If I could do it all over again I would have went straight for craniofacial orthopedics (facial growth orthodontics). If that didn't work then I would have had my juvenile extraction sites opened up (w ortho) and had those teeth replaced with implants. Downsides is that insurance won't pay for it. Why is it all the stuff that actually works, without dependency on the medical system, they won't pay for?>?

[chunkyfrog]

[ChicagoGranny]

was on cpap for 11 years and the only thing that sustained me was the Drs telling me 'you'll feel better the next day' and 'your numbers are great'. The best decision I could have ever done was to stop using the cpap machine before I became dependent on it.

According to posts you made in 2019, you used CPAP for 11 years without knowing you could read your own data and optimize your CPAP therapy. That lack of knowledge could be your biggest problem.

Friends, I post this not to insult sephiro499 who has suffered so much. I post it to alert you not to trust his comments. Trust the successful CPAPers.

[sephiro499]

was on cpap for 11 years and the only thing that sustained me was the Drs telling me 'you'll feel better the next day' and 'your numbers are great'. The best decision I could have ever done was to stop using the cpap machine before I became dependent on it.

According to posts you made in 2019, you used CPAP for 11 years without knowing you could read your own data and optimize your CPAP therapy. That lack of knowledge could be your biggest problem.

Friends, I post this not to insult sephiro499 who has suffered so much. I post it to alert you not to trust his comments. Trust the successful CPAPers.

Uh, what? I've been using sleepyhead/oscar and before that I used the respironics software. I have no idea what you are talking about. I might have made a post about an error message, bc the official respironics software I always had to run in a windows xp virtual machine for it to work right.

[GrumpyHere]

I looked into these hyoid suspension surgeries.

One of the possible complications is trouble swallowing after surgery.

Trading one problem for another doesn't seem like a good idea.
Specially given the probability of still having sleep apnea afterwards.

I guess if you're looking to lose weight ...

[ChicagoGranny]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Ahh, but the internet knows. You posted in December 2019 that you had been a member here since July 2008 and didn't know the machine data could be read on a PC. So you were using CPAP for 11 years and 5 months without reading your machine card?

11 Years and almost no Improvement
Post by sephiro499 » Sun Dec 22, 2019 2:50 pm

Check my profile: joined 7-2008. I didn't post because only until recently did I even know you could 'read' the machine data on a PC.

https://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... 5#p1334865

[SamInLasVegas]

I looked into these hyoid suspension surgeries.

One of the possible complications is trouble swallowing after surgery.

Trading one problem for another doesn't seem like a good idea.
Specially given the probability of still having sleep apnea afterwards.

I guess if you're looking to lose weight ...

I'm not overweight. I'm 6'0 175 lbs. I have always been in good physical shape. How I ended up with this condition is beyond me.