The emergent field of sleep medicine is always looking for new, effective ways to treat Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Data on adherence and outcome of upper airway stimulation (UAS) of the hypoglossal nerve for patients with OSA are collected in an international registry – the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry (ADHERE). Previous publications have discussed significant improvement in self-reported and objective OSA outcomes, durable effectiveness, and high adherence following UAS implantation. Debate remains whether the effectiveness of UAS is influenced by preoperative OSA severity; therefore, this study aimed to evaluate using data from the ADHERE Registry for these patients.
ADHERE is a postmarket, ongoing, international multicenter registry. Adult patients were included if they had undergone UAS implantation and had at least 1 follow-up visit recorded in the database on June 8, 2021. The study divided the patients into 5 subgroups, based on OSA severity at baseline (Apnoea Hypopnoea Index (AHI), in events/hour): subgroup 1 (0–15/h), 2 (15–30/h), 3 (≥ 30–50/h), 4 (> 50–65/h), and 5 (> 65/h). They compared results regarding objective and self-reported treatment outcomes.
A total of 1,963 patients were included. Twelve months after implantation, there was a significant (P < .0001) improvement in objective sleep parameters in all subgroups with an AHI above 15 events/h. Patients in subgroup 1 had the lowest AHI at the final visit and the AHI reduction in patients in subgroup 5 was the largest (P < .0001). No significant difference was found between the subgroups in overall treatment success (66.6%) and improvement in self-reported outcomes. The development of UAS continues to produce clinically significant outcomes and widespread interest among patients suffering with OSA.
Bosschieter PFN, de Vries N, Mehra R, et al. Similar effect of hypoglossal nerve stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea in 5 disease severity categories. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022;18(6):1657–1665.
