title: Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with the Karwetzky oral appliance.
abstract: The aims of this retrospective study were to assess the effect of a Karwetzky mandibular protrusion appliance for treating patients with mild, moderate, and severe obstructive sleep apnea. Eighty-one of 116 patients (69.8%) suffering from obstructive sleep apnea were treated with an activator model according to Karwetzky. After 4 months (SD 4.0 months) treatment outcome was controlled by polysomnography. Therapeutic outcome depended on the severity of obstructive sleep apnea. The median apnea-hypopnea index decreased from 10.6 events/h (range 2.0-14.9) to 5.8 events/h (range 0.2-17.3, P<0.01) in the mild group, from 21.7 events/h (range 17.3-28.4) to 7.7 events/h (range 1.0-30.1, P<0.001) in the moderate group, and from 42.1 events/h (range 33.2-64.9) to 18.1 events/h (range 2.4-48.8, P<0.001) in the severe group. Sleep variables did not show consistent improvement except for a trend towards more REM sleep and slow-wave sleep. The numbers of retentive teeth did not statistically influence treatment efficacy. Comparing the pre- and post-treatment polysomnographic variables, it was found that the respiratory events rather than sleep stages were significantly reduced by the Karwetzky appliance investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, University of Freiburg, Germany. rose@zmk2.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Edmund
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Staats
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schulte-Mönting
authors.forename: Irmtrud E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Jonas
mesh_terms: D000202:Activator Appliances; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D019186:Mandibular Advancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017090:Occlusal Splints; D017286:Polysomnography; D012119:Respiration; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000628:therapy*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome