Here is the website. Basically, it is a surgically-installed stimulator for the tongue and maybe other parts that allows someone with moderate to severe sleep apnea to sleep without a CPAP or similar device. You have a controller and you turn it on when you go to sleep and turn it off when you get up.
The reported side effects sound fairly minor. Cost is not discussed, and it probably isn’t covered by my health insurance, but I have been using a CPAP for 18 years and would be happy to do without it.
I presume it’s pretty new, so I don’t really expect to find any of you who have it, but I’m taking a shot.
Not a medical expert, but my wife does run a sleep apnea clinic in San Diego, so I certainly hear about this topic every night at dinner and different non-CPAP solutions, such as jaw advancement devices. I just checked out the website and asked the rep what it costs. Here was her response: “Inspire sells the Inspire system to hospitals for about $20,000. The hospitals will have facility and physician fees. Please work with your hospital to learn more about the total cost of the Inspire procedure.” She also told me that it is not yet FDA approved, which I assume is code for “your insurance company won’t cover any of the $20,000 cost”. But call your insurance company and ask them about non-FDA approved options.
I can tell you that my wife is very against these alternative therapies because in her experience they don’t work long term, and with no other lifestyle change, she would tell you that you’d end up back on the CPAP anyway, but be $20,000 poorer to show for it. While I don’t have the same skepticism she does, I would wonder if a stimulation of the tongue and soft palate would only work in the short term, at which point the muscles would adjust, requiring a higher level of stimulation over time. You know, much the same way a higher dosage of drug is needed over time for chronic conditions in many cases because of the down regulating of receptors.
That said, I would talk to your doctor and see what they say. One factor I would consider is why you have the sleep apnea. If it is simply a weight issue, as is the case with many patients, and if you are otherwise willing to go under the knife anyway and fork over $20,000, why not consider lap-band or other weight loss therapy? Presumably if you’ve been using the CPAP for 18 years, losing the weight and getting off of it over time either through natural weight loss or extreme weight loss wouldn’t be a dealbreaker, right? Of course, I say this as someone who needed to lose weight to counter diabetes myself, and having done it largely by giving up carbs and sodas the natural way, I have to say it was pretty easy all things being equal. By I’m a fairly healthy guy who doesn’t have sleep apnea myself, so I may not be representative of your own situation.
https://www.inspiresleep.com/for-healthcare-professionals/star-clinical-trial/
They did do a randomized trial that was accepted by one of the biggest medical journals for publication. 3-year followup. The graphs look pretty good, but I’m not a sleep expert.
Yarster, thanks for the feedback. I was thinking I would pay whatever it cost, but $20K plus physician/hospital costs is just too much, so that’s off the table.
For the record, I developed sleep apnea when I started putting on weight, although I went undiagnosed until it became so bad I was falling asleep at work. At one point I was well over 300 pounds. I then went on a doctor-supervised high-protein modified fast and lost 150 pounds. Then I had another sleep test, and my sleep apnea had gone down from severe to moderate. So losing that weight wasn’t enough to get me off the machine. I’m not sure why.
I’m much healthier now, even though I have put some of the weight back on, but I still seem to need the CPAP.
Well then it sounds like the lap-band is neither necessary nor recommended since your weight is pretty manageable, depending on how much weight “put some of the weight back on” refers to. I can only guess that the weight gain never left your neck area when you lost the rest of it, which is why a lot of former football players and weight lifters who have gotten out of the sport suffer from sleep apnea as well since they have thicker necks but have lost muscle tone in that area.
I know there are a number of procedures for soft palate surgery and hardening of the tissue with some kind of radio wave exposure, but it also seems to be a temporary fix. We have an Australian friend who is in shape but suffers from sleep apnea simply due to his facial structure. He had the radio wave thing done and while it did temporarily fix the sleep apnea such that he didn’t need his CPAP, it changed his voice, which he was really upset about because he does a lot of voiceover work as an actor. About a year later, his voice returned to normal, but then shortly after, so did his sleep apnea. Again, I would recommend talking to your doctor about either of those procedures as well. I’m sure both of those are well cheaper than the $20,000, but they may also be temporary in nature. Have you considered a custom jaw advancement device? Many insurance companies cover that as a dental appliance, without any surgery and recovery time, and that should work for moderate sleep apnea.