Surgical Treatment of Moderate Sleep Apnea

chunkyfrog wrote:Did you read about that on Medgadget?

Personally, I read the same advice on the need sleep forum by folks who were exploring alternatives to pap therapy. Can't remember if any surgeons had chimed in or not about doing this.

If I have to go the surgery route in which I chose to have anatomy altered, I would definitely follow that advice unless a darned good reason was given why that wasn't necessary. Not at that point yet but just thinking ahead as there are several steps before I get there.

I could also see it as perhaps a helpful diagnostic process if someone wanted to stay with pap therapy but had tried everything under the sun to make it work but couldn't. Of course, not being a medical expert, I can't say this for sure but it just seems like it could have that type of usefulness.

49er

I recently received a PM asking for an update. Below is my 3-year update:

The punchline is that, the difficult recovery is fading from memory but so are the benefits. This surgery is not a silver bullet. The results were tremendous the first two years but the benefits have gradually degraded to the point of needing to explore additional remedies (both surgical or non-surgical).

Here is the bad news: I went back on CPAP about a year ago (2 years post surgery) and still have trouble as before with keeping the mask on (~1hr compliance/night). So I don't feel like the well-rested person I was just after the surgery. I just had another sleep study and while I don't have my AHI handy, it fell in the "moderate" apnea category. I am currently exploring other options both surgical and non-surgical.

The good news: My 'baseline' state now is much better than before. I find that even without CPAP I can wake up and function in the AM whereas, before the surgery, I felt like I got hit by a train. Every. Freaking. Morning. So, in my case, while the improvement in my baseline sleep is not a miracle, it's just enough for me to become a functioning adult before 10am. Additionally, if I get lucky and keep my CPAP mask on for more than 2hrs, I feel wonderful in the AM which is something I could never have said in the past with or without a good night on CPAP. So in those two important senses, my surgery was successful and, because of that, I would elect to do the surgery again.

Some improvement is good, though not quite what you hoped for.
Hopefully, the docs will keep learning; and our kids/grandkids will be spared this disorder.