Effectiveness of oral pressure therapy in obstructive sleep apnea: a systematic analysis.
OBJECTIVE
Oral pressure therapy (OPT) has emerged as a novel technique to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the past few years. Given this is a relatively new treatment approach, currently, little is known with respect to its clinical utility. The aim of this review was to explore the success rate of OPT when used to treat OSA.


METHODS
PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched for pertinent studies.


RESULTS
The OPT treatment success rates varied widely between 25 and 79 % depending on the residual apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) cut off defined for treatment success. When using standard definitions (at least 50 % reduction from the baseline AHI and the post-OPT treatment residual AHI less than or equal to 10), the success rate of OPT treatment varied between 25 and 37 %.


CONCLUSIONS
Although there was a significant reduction in AHI with OPT, the baseline AHI was not suppressed in majority of patients to the extent to call these patients as optimally treated. Successful treatment with OPT did not correlate with severity of OSA; however, patients with retro-palatal collapse responded better to treatment. Further research is needed to identify OSA patients who would benefit with this treatment modality.
Sleep Disorders Center, University of Michigan Health System, C728 Med Inn Bldg. 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5845, USA. dr.nigamgaurav@gmail.com.
Gaurav
G
Nigam
Government Medical College, Nagpur Road, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, 482003, India.
Charu
C
Pathak
Sleep Disorders Center, University of Michigan Health System, C728 Med Inn Bldg. 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5845, USA.
Muhammad
M
Riaz
D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D017286:Polysomnography; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D014618:Vacuum; D015919:Ventilators, Negative-Pressure
Apnea-hypopnea index; Obstructive sleep apnea; Oral pressure therapy; Treatment success rate