For most patients with sleep apnoea, continuous positive airway pressure therapy mitigates health risks, but some struggle with treatment adherence. A recent study showed that 12 months after surgical implantation of an upper-airway stimulation device, patients experienced significantly fewer apnoea or hypopnoea events per sleeping hour than at baseline, and also reported improved quality of life. A random subset of patients then had their stimulators deactivated for 7 days, which prompted a return of sleep apnoea events.
References
Strollo, P. J. Jr et al. Upper-airway stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea. N. Engl. J. Med. 370, 139–149 (2014)
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Implanted upper-airway stimulator improves sleep apnoea. Nat Rev Neurol 10, 62 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.9