Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty May Reduce the Incidence of Dementia Caused by Obstructive Sleep Apnea: National Insurance Service Survey 2007-2014

Endorsement of "European Respiratory Society guideline on non-CPAP therapies for obstructive sleep apnoea" by World Sleep Society

Guidelines for management of sleep disorders from national or regional societies provide recommendations that may be regionally appropriate but may not always be practical or relevant in other parts of the world. A task force of experts from the World Sleep Society's (WSS) International Sleep Medicine Guidelines Committee and Sleep and Breathing Disorders Task Force reviewed the European Respiratory Society's guideline on non-CPAP therapies for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with respect to its relevance and applicability to the practice of sleep medicine by sleep specialists in various regions of the world. The task force and the WSS guidelines committee endorsed the European Respiratory Society's guideline with respect to the utilization of bariatric surgery, mandibular advancement devices, positioning devices, myofunctional therapy, hypoglossal neurostimulation, maxilo-mandibular surgery, and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors for the treatment of OSA. The task force and the WSS guidelines committee noted that there is substantial new evidence for the role of soft tissue, upper airway surgery, not included in the guidelines paper.

The Changes in the Severity of Deep Neck Infection Post-UPPP and Tonsillectomy in Patients with OSAS

The main aim of this study is to compare the incidence rate and severity of deep neck infection (DNI) in patients post-UPPP+ T (uvulopalatopharyngoplasty plus tonsillectomy) and without UPPP+ T. We utilized the data derived from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2012. Patients who had undergone combined UPPP and tonsillectomy were selected using National Health Insurance (NHI) surgical order. Patients with DNI were selected using International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9-CM) code. A logistic regression model was applied for risk analysis. There were 1574 patients in the UPPP+ T cohort, and 6,296 patients who did not undergo combined UPPP and tonsillectomy for the control group. Our analysis showed that patients with an obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) history constitute 76.1% (n = 1198) of the UPPP+ T cohort. Compared to the control group, there was no significantly increased incidence rate of DNI after UPPP+ T within 1–60 months. Patients undergoing combined UPPP and tonsillectomy had a lower intubation rate for DNI, with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.47 (95% CI = 0.32–0.69). The combined UPPP and tonsillectomy does not increase the risk of DNI within 1–60 months. Furthermore, combined UPPP and tonsillectomy can reduce the severity for DNI by decreasing the intubation rate and length of hospitalization.

Association of nasal septal deviation with the incidence of anxiety, depression, and migraine: A national population-based study

Background & aims

Nasal obstruction caused by nasal septal deviation is very bothersome and, therefore, can affect the patient’s emotional state. However, little is known about the effect of nasal septal deviation (NSD) on the neuropsychiatric aspects of patients. Therefore, this study aims to verify the higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and migraine in patients diagnosed with NSD compared to general populations using big data.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study collected subjects from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database. Adjustments were made to minimize the confounding of variables for age, sex, residence type, income levels, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, rhinitis, and chronic rhinosinusitis between the two groups. The primary endpoint of this study was newly diagnosed anxiety, depression, and migraine between January 2009 and December 2018. Kaplan-Meier survival curves, logarithmic rank test, and Cox proportional regression test were used for statistical analysis.

Results

Among a total of 135,769 subjects in the NHIS database, 48,495 patients with NSD (NSD group) and 54,475 control subjects (control group) were selected. Patients with NSD had an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and migraine compared to the control group. In the NSD group, the adjusted hazard ratios (HR) were 1.236 (95% CI, 1.198–1.276) for anxiety, 1.289 (95% CI, 1.238–1.343) for depression, and 1.251 (95% CI, 1.214–1.290) for migraine.

Conclusion

NSD is associated with a higher incidence of anxiety, depression, and migraine. Therefore, it is suggested that physicians carefully consider psychoneurological distress and employ therapeutic strategies to minimize these conditions.

Association of Systemic Diseases With Surgical Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Compared With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure

Importance

The efficacy of surgical treatments for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is variable when considering only the Apnea Hypopnea Index as the treatment end point. However, only a few studies have shown an association between these procedures and improved clinically relevant outcomes, such as cardiovascular, endocrine, and neurological sequelae of OSA.

Objective

To evaluate the association of surgery for OSA with clinically relevant outcomes.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This retrospective cohort study used the Truven MarketScan Database from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2015, to identify all patients diagnosed with OSA who received a prescription of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), were 40 to 89 years of age, and had at least 3 years of data on file. Data were analyzed September 19, 2019.

Interventions

Soft tissue and skeletal surgical procedures for the treatment of OSA.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The occurrence of cardiovascular, neurological, and endocrine complications was compared in patients who received CPAP alone and those who received surgery. High-dimensionality propensity score matching was used to adjust the models for confounders. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with a log-rank test was used to compare differences in survival curves.

Findings

A total of 54 224 patients were identified (33 405 men [61.6%]; mean [SD] age, 55.1 [9.2] years), including a cohort of 49 823 patients who received CPAP prescription alone (mean [SD] age, 55.5 [9.4] years) and 4269 patients who underwent soft tissue surgery (mean [SD] age, 50.3 [7.0] years). The median follow-up time was 4.47 (interquartile range, 3-8) years after the index CPAP prescription. In the unadjusted model, soft tissue surgery was associated with decreased cardiovascular (hazard ratio [HR], 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.98), neurological (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.39-0.61), and endocrine (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.74-0.86) events. This finding was maintained in the adjusted model (HR for cardiovascular events, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.83-1.00]; HR for neurological events, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.51-0.89]; HR for endocrine events, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.74-0.91]). Skeletal surgery (n = 114) and concomitant skeletal and soft tissue surgery (n = 18) did not demonstrate significant differences in rates of development of systemic complications.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this cohort study, soft tissue surgery for OSA was associated with lower rates of development of cardiovascular, neurological, and endocrine systemic complications compared with CPAP prescription in a large convenience sample of the working insured US adult population. These findings suggest that surgery should be part of the early treatment algorithm in patients at high risk of CPAP failure or nonadherence.

The incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is increased in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is known to be associated with several cancers, but studies assessing the association between OSA and lymphoma have not been conducted yet. This study aimed to investigate the associations between OSA and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which accounts for the majority of lymphoma, using the Korea National Health Insurance Service database. This retrospective cohort study analyzed the data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service database. A total of 198,574 patients aged ≥ 20 years who were newly diagnosed with OSA between 2007 and 2014 were included. The control group comprising 992,870 subjects was selected using propensity score matching by age and sex. The mean follow-up duration was 4.8 ± 2.3 years. The primary endpoint was newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The hazard ratio [95 % confidence interval] of OSA for the incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma was calculated based on Cox proportional hazard model. The incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma among patients with OSA was significantly higher than that among the controls (1.40 [1.16-1.69]). In particular, the incidence was higher in women than that in men (1.62 vs. 1.28). There was no difference in hazard ratio by age. In conclusion, OSA may be a risk factor for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Alzheimer's Disease in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

BACKGROUND

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a disorder with high prevalence among adults and is an independent risk factor for various diseases, especially those affecting the central nervous system (CNS). Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is usually the optimal choice of treatment for OSAS. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting a large proportion of the elderly population. The purpose of this study was to collect information concerning the two pathological entities and investigate the effectiveness of CPAP in the treatment of AD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this review, Twenty articles were found concerning OSAS and AD, of which one article was about treatment with donepezil and seven articles considered treatment with CPAP.

RESULTS

Serious OSAS and short sleep duration are associated with a high risk of developing dementia. Respiratory distress during sleep is associated with developing mild cognitive impairment at younger ages. The cerebrovascular damage of AD patients is correlated with the severity of OSAS. Lower cerebrospinal fluid levels are associated with memory disturbances and oxygen saturation parameters in patients with OSAS-AD. Continuous use of CPAP is related to the delayed onset of cognitive impairment and is suggested as an effective method of protecting cognitive function, depression, sleep quality and architecture, and daytime sleepiness in AD patients with good compliance. Treatment of CPAP patients with OSAS-AD is suggested as an effective method of protecting cognitive function.

CONCLUSION

Clinicians dealing with AD patients should consider CPAP treatment when OSAS coexists.

Low vision and the risk of dementia: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Recent studies suggested that an association exists between vision loss and cognitive impairment, although it is still vague whether there are causal relationships or direct association between low vision and dementia. We were to investigate the association between low vision and dementia in the Korean population using the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database. We analyzed the data of 6,029,657 subjects aged ≥40 years, drawn from Korea National Health Insurance Service. The hazard ratio (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs) of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Vascular dementia (VD) were estimated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models. Statistical analysis showed that subjects with more severe visual impairments have a higher risk of dementia, AD, and VD after adjusting for compounding variables. The HRs of dementia increased significantly as visual acuity worsened (HRs 1.444 [95% CIs 1.415-1.473] for visual acuity (VA) < 1.0, 1.734 [1.693-1.777] for VA < 0.3, 1.727 [1.686-1.770] for VA < 0.1 and 1.991[1.902-2.085] for visual loss). Baseline visual loss and visual impairment were positively associated with the risk of dementia, AD, and VD. From the results of this nationwide population-based cohort study, we suggest that there is a significant increase in the incidence of dementia in subjects with low vision.