Surgery?

hehcsh · Post by **hehcsh** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:52 am

Has anyone tried, or thought about, surgery as a treatment for OSA? Does it work? What is the success rate? Would that be better than CPAP?

jeepdoctor · Post by **jeepdoctor** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:16 am

Read the post at http://www.robotics.com/mma

I know a person who had the MMA done a number of years ago in Phoenix. He sleeps like normal people. No machine, no dental appliance. He said that the clinic had to do some unsuccessful surgeries to build a case so that his insurance carrier would approve the MMA.

jeepdoctor · Post by **jeepdoctor** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:30 am

After the sleep studies were completed, I faxed them to Dr. Nelson Powell's clinic in Palo Alto. One of their doctors called me back and spent an hour explaining my studies to me and reviewing surgical options. He told me more than the sleep doc in town, who didn't even examine me. The local doc just sat in his chair and told me that CPAP is the gold standard and how surgery would ruin my physiology. The local doc also told me that he didn't know and wasn't concerned about where/what my obstruction site is, because CPAP would handle it.

This fall I plan to go to the clinic to be examined, scoped and x-rayed. The clinic will then make surgical recommendations and do an insurance pre-approval submission. From what I have ascertained, this is the best clinic in North America. The doctor I talked to made some interesting observations. First, he wouldn't want to see me until I had been on CPAP for around a month. Second, since I am basically hypopnic, he feels that their surgery will have a 75% success probability. The Palo Alto doctor also told me that it will be an uphill battle with insurance, since they don't like to pay for surgeries as opposed to paying for a CPAP machine.

LDuyer · Post by **LDuyer** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:46 am

Rested Gal compiles a terrific list of links to topics and articles about surgeries:

viewtopic.php?t=2836&highlight=links

Success rates vary depending on the type of surgery. Plus your success depends alot on the severity of your existing sleep apnea. As I understand it, typically the success rates (many of which are low) are attributed to people with mild apnea. You should educate yourself on these surgeries and if you have moderate or severe apnea, question their success rates. Personally, I'm terrified of surgeries, but that's just me. I fear anything which might not be reversable if it doesn't work out. I've heard too many horror stories, but there have been successes.

Linda