Efe Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Thursday, February 8, 2024-08:41

The

Hospital del Mar in Barcelona

will begin to treat sleep apnea patients who do not have good tolerance to traditional night respirators, known as

'CPAP'

, through an invisible microsurgery under the tongue that prevents the passage of air from being obstructed. air when sleeping.

This surgery, pioneering in Spain, consists of implanting a

neurostimulator

to be able to act on the nerve that controls the movement of the tongue, a surgery that is "minimally invasive," the hospital explained.

It is estimated that in Spain there are between 1.2 and 2.1 million people who suffer from it, but less than 10% are diagnosed and under treatment.

Of those diagnosed, approximately half also need alternative methods because they cannot tolerate the standard treatment, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), a device that transmits pressure to the airway through a

mask

that must be worn. Wear during sleeping hours to ensure good night breathing.

The head of the Otorhinolaryngology Service at Hospital del Mar, Dr.

Jacinto García-Lorenzo

, has highlighted the usefulness of the new therapy for "all those patients who are not eligible for other sleep apnea treatments and for whom, until now, we could not offer no alternative if they couldn't stand the standard approach to apnea.

Minimally invasive surgery

The doctors make a six-centimeter incision under the patient's jaw, which is intended to come into contact with both sides of the tongue, the hypoglossal nerve, which controls the

genioglossus muscle

, and implant a device that affects the movements of the tongue. tongue so that it does not obstruct the passage of air.

Eight weeks later the device is activated and, from that moment on, the patient only needs to place a

patch under the chin

to hold the activation chip.

"This stimulation causes the muscles of the tongue to contract, with the intention of keeping the airways open," highlights García-Lorenzo, who makes it clear that it only needs to be activated during sleeping hours.

The first patients that Hospital del Mar has treated with this surgery were 52 and 67 years old, and had severe sleep apnea for which other therapeutic alternatives had not worked.

To know more

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Hope for people who suffer from sleep apnea: a device from the Madrid Clinical Hospital could cure it

Cinema.

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From the Hospital del Mar they say that now the treated patients have already activated the devices and have noticed an immediate improvement in the quality of their sleep.

The coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit at Hospital del Mar,

Núria Grau

, has highlighted that the incorporation of this approach "is a very important step for the unit, since it incorporates a new therapeutic option. We have gone from treating practically all patients as well as being able to individualize and personalize which is the best therapeutic option for each patient.

"With this pioneering surgery we can offer a treatment alternative in those complex cases that do not tolerate the usual treatment and in which we previously did not have alternatives, with the consequent health risk of having untreated nocturnal apneas," he added.

Sleep apnea is a pathology that is characterized by repeated episodes of

upper airway obstruction during sleep

and this causes the patient to wake up unconsciously and causes them to not rest, as well as drowsiness during the day, neuropsychiatric disorders. , metabolic, respiratory and cardiac.

Risk factors are obesity, aging or suffering from heart or kidney failure, among others.

Among its effects, doctors highlight the reduction in quality of life, as well as a possible increase in high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and the risk of death.