One of the premier providers of innovative supplies for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) products for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Circadiance announces the launch of its latest product evolution with the New and Improved SleepWeaver® Advance soft cloth nasal CPAP mask with the revolutionary Zzzephyr Seal®.

“The evolution of this product is the result of ongoing communication with our customers, reseller network and sleep technicians throughout the world,” said David Groll, CEO. “Our focus on quality through feedback has led to the re-engineering and significant improvement to our successful SleepWeaver® soft cloth nasal CPAP mask providing an even better fit and seal.” Read the rest of this entry

Building on their highly successful System One humidification, Philips  Respironics has introduced an additional humidification solution that enhances  performance, flexibility and comfort for the sleep apnea sufferer. The System  One Heated Tube provides CPAP users with air temperature control, improved humidification and rainout  protection. The Heated Tube can only be found on the Philips Respironics System  One REMstar Auto A-Flex with Heated Humidification and Heated Tube model  DS560TS.

The System One Heated Tube takes into account the room temperature and  humidity by using a sensor at the end of the Heated Tube to allow the CPAP user to choose what temperature is  right for them and at the same time protects against rainout. The Heated  Tube is a welcome advance in CPAP therapy and is just another reason why Philips  Respironics is a leader in the sleep therapy market. Read the rest of this entry

The ResMed S9 AutoSet CPAP machine is available from Sleep Restfully, Inc. The S9 Autoset is the finest auto-titrating CPAP machine on the market. Manufactured by ResMed, known for excellent quality CPAP machines and CPAP mask throughout the world, count on the S9 Autoset to control your obstructive sleep apnea.

The S9 AutoSet combines an intelligent algorithm with Easy-Breathe expiratory pressure relief (EPR) to dynamically adjust pressure for maximum comfort. Using ResMed’s time-tested APAP technology, AutoSet continually monitors breathing, adapting breath-by-breath to always deliver the lowest therapeutic pressure, improving comfort and sleep. Enhanced AutoSet is now able to differentiate between obstructive and central sleep apneas, so you can be confident that you are always receiving appropriate therapy and pressure. Read the rest of this entry

The Aviisha Medical Institute’s DriveSafe Program is lowering costs associated with the testing and treatment of sleep apnea for commercial drivers. Launched in February, the program is also aimed at raising awareness about this serious disease and helping drivers stay compliant.

The DriveSafe Program is the institute’s latest effort to combat the effects of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea has recently been spotlighted in the commercial driver industry.

In January, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced that it had adopted recommendations to have all commercial drivers with a body mass index of 35 or higher tested for sleep apnea. A person with a body mass index of 35 or higher is considered obese and is at high risk of having sleep apnea. Read the rest of this entry

Siesta Medical, Inc., a developer of minimally invasive surgical solutions for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), announced the U.S. launch of its Encore™ Tongue Suspension System for the treatment of OSA. The Encore™ System simplifies and improves the control of tongue suspension, a procedure shown to be an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Dr. Jason van Tassel at Washington Hospital in Fremont, CA performed one of the first patient implants.

“Through a small incision, the Encore System allowed me to navigate the tongue base and easily place suspension loops. Controlling the final tension and advancement of the tongue base was easy and much simpler than with previous tongue suspension devices. This was a quick and minimally invasive surgery and is a potentially attractive surgical option for OSA patients with tongue base obstructions” said Dr. van Tassel. Read the rest of this entry

The health condition of children and adolescents with obstructive sleep apnea becomes much better in terms of attention, anxiety and quality of life after treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP).

It delivers a stream of air through a mask into the nose. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a condition of interrupted breathing caused by a narrowing in the throat or upper airway, related to large tonsils, obesity or other medical problems.

Using PAP commonly relieves OSAS in adults, among whom it has been studied extensively. However, there have been few studies of PAP in children with OSAS, the American Journal of Respiratory and Clinical Care Medicine reports.

“The benefits occurred even when children didn’t fully adhere to the treatment,” said study leader Carole L. Marcus, sleep specialist and director of the Sleep Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The Sleep Center follows thousands of children and adolescents with sleep problems, according to a Children’s Hospital statement. Read the rest of this entry

A Currently concluded research study based on the large health insurance database revealed that people who’d suffered sudden deafness were more probable to have a previous diagnosis of sleep apnea than a comparison group without hearing loss.

Taiwanese health insurance data analysis revealed that the absolute difference is actually small: 1.7 percent of those with hearing loss had sleep apnea in comparison to 1.2 percent without hearing trouble.

The health records of nearly one million Taiwanese evaluated by Dr. Jau-Jiuan Sheu, of Taipei Medical University Hospital. His team of researchers found that almost 3,200 had been diagnosed with sudden deafness between 2000 and 2008. Comparison was made with other five people of same age and sex without hearing loss. Out of those 19,000 people in total, 240 had been diagnosed with sleep apnea before the episode of sudden deafness occurred. Read the rest of this entry

As the number of patients diagnosed with sleep apnea is increasing the costs related to the health insurance is also increasing exponentially. This skyrocketing of the insurer’s sleep apnea related costs has now compelled the insurance companies to change their health coverage policies for the disorder.

A sleep apnea diagnosis usually requires patients undergo tests overnight in a sleep lab; some patients spend two nights in the lab to separately test for sleep apnea and to try a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. Insurers often spend $1,900 for one overnight stay.

As a result of this increased spending, some experts are concerned that overnight tests to diagnose apnea are over-prescribed. Medicare payments for sleep testing increased from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009.

This contrasts effective home sleep tests that cost less than a fifth of the lab version. Although Medicare began paying for home sleep tests in 2008, the tests have had only modest growth. Read the rest of this entry

Snoring was once considered a simple annoyance for bed partners, but there is a growing awareness in the medical community that the grunts and snorts of noisy sleepers can also be a sign of sleep apnea.

Testing can be a lucrative business, and labs have popped up in free-standing clinics and hospitals across the country. Over the past decade, the number of accredited sleep labs that test for the disorder has quadrupled, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

At the same time, insurer spending on the procedure has skyrocketed. Medicare payments for sleep testing increased from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009, according to the Office of the Inspector General.

Dr. David Gross, medical director of the sleep lab at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., says more than three-quarters of the patients who come to his lab are diagnosed with sleep apnea. “We are spending more and more money on sleep testing and treatment,” he says.

It’s no secret that the sleep business can be lucrative for physicians. While many sleep centers offer comprehensive care for sleep disorders, others are largely focused on overnight sleep testing, according to Dr. Nancy Collop, president of the academy. “A lot of people have gotten into the sleep business specifically to do that procedure,” she says.

Another option is a home sleep test, which costs less than a fifth as much as a lab test, and is considered effective for most patients. Medicare began paying for home sleep tests in 2008, but the tests have had only modest growth.

Some insurers, including WellPoint, are changing the way they pay for sleep testing to curb the costs.  Those changes are now widespread among Massachusetts insurers and are having an effect on the sleep industry in the state. [ Read Complete Post ... ]

One of the most common health disorders among people around the world is “sleep apnea”. In its simplest sense ‘sleep apnea’ can be understood as one or more pauses in normal breathing. In many cases the shallow breathing during sleep is also termed as ‘sleep apnea’.

A pause in normal breathing during sleep may have an undefined duration. Meaning thereby, the pause could be for a few seconds only or it can even stretch up to few minutes.

Similarly, the rate of occurrence of such pauses during sleep may also vary up to great ranges. It could be five times per hour or even up to 30 times an hour. Normal breathing generally starts immediately after such a pause but this re-start could generate a snoring or choking sound as well.

Once a person is a victim of ‘sleep apnea’ this disorder converts in to a chronic disorder slowly over the years. In majority of the cases people never realize that the ‘sleep apnea disorder’ has crept in their lives. Read the rest of this entry

If you are suffering from the deadly sleep disorder called the obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) then you’re not breathing properly while you sleep because your airflow is blocked repeatedly throughout the night.

Almost one in four men and one in ten women suffer from sleep apnea. There are three different types of sleep apnea but obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common. And it goes hand-in-hand with type 2 diabetes.

Among all of the sleep disorders, OSA has the strongest association with type 2 diabetes. That’s even taking into account other risk factors, such as weight, sex and age.

The main risk factor for OSA is obesity. Excess weight deposits extra fat around the thorax, reducing chest compliance and functional capacity, while increasing oxygen demand. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep apnea is a deadly sleep disorder and as soon as you spot out any symptoms of this deadly disorder it is always best to go to a sleep specialist and follow his instructions.

A good sleep specialist will probably recommend CPAP, surgery, or oral appliance therapy. This list is not necessarily an alternative to CPAP, surgery, or oral appliances, but rather supplementary methods that decrease the probability of airway collapse.

Usually these methods are not enough to entirely eliminate sleep apnea disorder however there are effective ways either. Here are six of such probable ways ;

1. Lose Your Extra Weight

Unless you are extremely overweight AND your sleep apnea is mild, usually weight loss is not enough to entirely eliminate it. But it can definitely help. Weight loss is thought to improve apnea by changing the shape of the airway which decreases the probability of airway collapse. Read the rest of this entry

Lee A. Surkin, MD is the first medical practice in the state of North Carolina to offer Provent Sleep Apnea Therapy, an innovative, non-invasive treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to patients in Greenville and throughout North Carolina. Cleared by the US FDA in 2008, Provent Therapy is a simple and effective new treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea. Provent Therapy utilizes the patient’s own breathing to provide clinically proven results in the treatment of OSA.

CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) is currently the gold standard for treatment of OSA and is extremely effective at treating OSA when worn as directed. However, up to half of all patients are not compliant with CPAP therapy due to the cumbersome nature of the treatment. Provent Therapy was developed to help patients who cannot tolerate CPAP therapy and may benefit from the small non-invasive and effective technology Provent Therapy provides. Read the rest of this entry

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

United States Anesthesia and Respiratory Devices Market Outlook to 2017 – Respiratory Devices, Respiratory Measurement Devices, Airway and Anesthesia Devices, Anesthesia Machines, Sleep Apnea Diagnostic Systems, Pain Management Devices and Others

The report provides key market data on the United States Anesthesia and Respiratory Devices market. The report provides value (USD million), volume (units) and average price (USD) data for each segment and sub-segment within eight market categories – Airway and Anesthesia Devices, Anesthesia Machines, Pain Management Devices, Regional Anesthesia Disposables, Respiratory Devices, Respiratory Disposables, Respiratory Measurement Devices and Sleep Apnea Diagnostic Systems. Read the rest of this entry

For patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea, three months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is associated with reduced blood pressure, and partial reversal of metabolic abnormalities, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Surendra K. Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and colleagues investigated the effects of CPAP treatment on metabolic syndrome in 86 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Patients were assigned to real or sham CPAP for three months, followed by a washout period of one month, and then a crossover to the other intervention for three months. Anthropometric variables, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose levels and lipid profile, insulin resistance, glycated hemoglobin levels, carotid intima-media thickness, and visceral fat were measured before and after each intervention. Read the rest of this entry