If you’re not getting enough sleep at night, it’s likely affecting your day-to-day life. Sleep disorders like sleep apnea are just one example of what could be causing your lack of sleep. For patients who have not had success with continuous positive airway pressure therapy, or CPAP, a surgical procedure could be an option.
After finding out he had obstructive sleep apnea, Kevin Palmer was recommended to try continuous positive airway pressure therapy, or CPAP treatment.
Living with Sleep Apnea
“I was having 82-92 episodes an hour, so they gave me a CPAP, and I hated it, I had it for about a year,” said Palmer.
As someone who does a lot of traveling to remote places, it was becoming difficult to bring the machine everywhere.
“I go to Canada every year, and a lot of the places I go to don’t have electricity because I go to outpost camps. With a CPAP not only do you have a bag you have to carry everything with, you have to have a battery if there’s no electricity,” said Palmer.
Treatment Option and How it Works
He met with Avera neurologist Jeffrey Boyle, MD where they talked about a surgical option he could consider.
“There is a way to open up the airway without that pressure, without that mask. A stimulator is placed in the chest, a wire is fed up into a nerve of the tongue, this branch of the tongue moves the tongue forward when stimulated,” said Boyle.
“We make an incision up, under the chin where we implant the electrode and we make an incision in the chest where we implant the generator. We tunnel the wire between the two to connect them,” said Mark Jameson, MD an Avera ENT and head and neck surgeon. “We do some testing while they are asleep to make sure it works, makes sure it sense breathing and makes sure it moves the tongue properly.”
By controlling the tongue movement, it helps keep the airway open while a person sleeps.
“It does not have any external pieces except the remote that the patient uses to activate the device, it’s otherwise entirely implanted,” said Jameson. “We are trying to contract the muscles of the airway so that the airway opens more naturally.”
Getting Enough Sleep
“The patient should feel more rested in the morning,” said Boyle.
And that’s true for Kevin, who says the device is making a big difference, allowing him to enjoy trips with ease.
“And I felt good, sleeping good, not tired during the day,” said Palmer.
The surgically implanted device is a second line therapy for obstructive sleep apnea and is typically used for patients who have not had success with CPAP.
Learn more about sleep apnea treatment options at Avera.
