I have a new website on sleep apnea, which is a basic primer on what it is, plus the diagnosis and common treatments for this condition. Since I have sleep apnea myself and have struggled with it for the past 7 years, I thought I needed to put up a website about it. The website can be found through my signature link.


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Sleep Apnea

Thanks and I shall check out.

I applaud your efforts to educate, but I need to correct some misinformation.

1.  Mild sleep apnea is an AHI of 5 -15, moderate 16-30, and severe >30.

2.  Patients should NEVER be referred to an ENT whose is not accredited in sleep medicine.  In fact I'd rather not see patients referred to ENTs at all since they are surgeons and tend to immediately recommend surgery rather than CPAP.  Patients should be referred to physicians accredited by the American Board of Sleep Medicine where the primary specialties run more along the lines of Pulmonologist, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine.   An ABSM accredited physician nearby can be found by calling the ABSM, www.absm.org

3.  A CPAP does not use compressed air.

4.  Not all apnea patients desaturate.  In fact many people have been misdiagnosed because they were tested by pulse-oximetry alone.  Additionally many people have Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome.

5.  Surgery does not allow the throat muscles to work better, it simply opens the airway.  Thank you for saying that scar tissue may be problematic.

6.  The tongue is not always part of the problem.

7.  I'm not sure where you got the information that sleep apnea reduces oxygen levels 8 hours a day (do you mean a night?).  That is not correct.  In a person without COPD, oxygen levels are corrected as soon as they take a breath.  Of course, when an apnea patient with normal lung function is awake, their O2Sat. is normal.

8.  Aloha your signature was so full of dangerous misinformation I removed it and request that you do not use it.

These are all the errors I caught with a quick glance.  More in depth and verified information can be found on this form and the ASAA main site www.sleepapnea.org.

Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

I am sorry if I have misinformation in my signature.

i believe that what is more important that to just rely on an sleep doctor versus an ENT, ect, is the quality of care; i went to my pulmonologist the first time i was suspecting of having sleep apnea because of my nonstop snoring; he sent me to a sleep apnea doctor, who just suggested to sew tennis balls to my pijama, he didn't even order a sleep test; one year passed, i went to an ENT for other purposes, and in his office were brochures about the pillar procedure; i asked him, he order sleep test, which showed SEVERE sleep apnea, high c reactive protein, high blood pressure, etc, he order the cpap, i asked about surgery, etc. well, he has really been very understandable of my situation; it is not the specialist, but the CARE what counts. maybe if i had a sleep test a year before, i wouldn't have had severe sleep apnea. now i have to deal about the consequences of this mistake.